The Complete Guide to eDiscovery in Slack

Every organization using Slack as part of its collaboration technology stack should have a plan in place to handle legal, compliance, and HR investigations within its complex, sprawling dataset. This post explores what business leaders need to know about conducting eDiscovery in Slack data, the challenges it presents, and how to proactively secure their entire digital workplace.

What is Slack?

Slack is a messaging application that helps coworkers to collaborate in real time from any location. Its simple interface and customizable features make it an attractive choice for businesses and employees alike, and it has enjoyed widespread adoption in recent years.

What is eDiscovery?

eDiscovery, or electronic discovery, involves searching electronically stored information (ESI) to find relevant content in response to legal, compliance, and other investigatory need. ESI includes Slack data, meaning at any moment a business could be obliged to produce specific Slack content from within the vast dataset of daily messages generated by employees.

In recent months, courts and regulators have begun to focus more intently on collaboration data. In a court filing, the FTC noted that “In some cases, Slack messages have been found to contain the 'smoking gun' regarding liability.” To date, several courts have ruled that the technical difficulty of performing eDiscovery in these datasets is no excuse for failing to meet legal obligations to do so.

Why is collaboration data so difficult to search?

The datasets generated by collaboration tools like Slack differ from traditional business communications in several key ways. Firstly, these datasets are truly massive—the average employee sends around 30 Slack messages per day, which adds up to tens of millions each month for even modest sized businesses. Furthermore, these messages lack the formal structure of letters, emails, or memos. They are short, conversational, and filled with acronyms and emojis whose meaning can change in a moment.

Traditional eDiscovery software may lack the ability to assess if a case of sexual harassment in the workplace boils down to the inappropriate use of an emoji. Worse, a traditional eDiscovery tool might not capture emojis at all.