Messenger vs Slack

Meta collects a very wide range of data, including activity, contacts, device identifiers, purchases, location, cookies, and partner data, even in some cases without an account. This enables deep profiling beyond simple messaging functionality.

If you use the free ad-supported version, Meta uses your information to personalize and measure ads on and off Meta products. This means your behavior and inferred interests help drive advertising decisions.

Meta may combine information across Meta products, and some cross-product use happens even without opting into Accounts Center. This can expand tracking and profiling across services.

Your information may be shared with other Meta companies, service providers, partners, law enforcement, and others for business, safety, and legal purposes. This broad sharing increases the number of entities handling your data.

You keep ownership of your content, but grant Meta a worldwide, royalty-free, transferable, sublicensable license to use and modify it for service operation. This is broader than many users expect when sharing content.

Consumer disputes can generally be brought in the courts of your home country under local law. This is much more user-friendly than mandatory arbitration or foreign-exclusive court clauses for consumers.

Meta says users have rights to access, correct, download, port, object to some processing, withdraw consent, and request deletion, subject to applicable law. These are meaningful privacy controls, especially for users covered by GDPR-style laws.

Deleting content or your account is not immediate: removal can take up to 90 days, plus up to another 90 days for backups, and some data may be kept longer. In practice, your information may remain in Meta systems for months.

Content you make public can be seen, reshared, downloaded, and indexed off Meta products, including by search engines and third parties. Once public, practical control over that content is limited.

Meta states it does not sell personal information and does not share direct identifiers like name or email with advertisers without specific permission. That does not eliminate ad profiling, but it is still a meaningful limit.

Meta can update the terms with 30 days' notice, and continued use counts as acceptance. Users who disagree generally must stop using the service.

Meta promises notice before material privacy policy changes and at least 30 days' notice for most terms changes. This gives users some time to review changes and decide whether to continue.

If you use Slack through work, your employer or workspace owner controls messages, files, settings, exports, and many privacy choices. In practice, your organization—not you—usually decides retention, access, and deletion of workspace content.

Workspace owners and admins may access, modify, or restrict your information, including profile details and workspace activity logs. Users should not assume workplace Slack activity is private from their organization.

Slack collects extensive non-content data including logs, device identifiers, approximate location, cookies, imported contacts, integration data, and audio/video metadata. This creates a detailed record of how you use the service even outside message content itself.

Slack says it does not 'sell' personal data under CCPA definitions, but it may share identifiers and internet activity with third-party advertisers for targeted ads off Slack. That means some personal data can still support advertising ecosystems.

Slack states it does not sell personal information as defined by the CCPA and says it would provide a right to opt out before doing so. This is a meaningful privacy commitment, even though ad-related sharing still occurs.

Users may have rights to access, correct, delete, restrict, object, and for Californians opt out of certain sharing. Slack also recognizes Global Privacy Control for cookie-based sharing opt-outs.

When integrations are enabled, Slack may receive and share data with those providers, which operate under their own privacy policies. Slack expressly does not guarantee those providers fully disclose permissions.

Slack keeps customer data according to employer instructions, but may retain other personal data as long as necessary for support, audits, legal compliance, disputes, and business interests. This does not give users a firm deletion timeline for all personal data.

Slack clearly says data may be transferred internationally, including to the U.S., and identifies Standard Contractual Clauses and APEC certifications as safeguards. This is helpful transparency for cross-border data handling.

Slack can change its privacy policy over time and asks users to review it, with extra notice only for material changes to privacy rights. Continued use may effectively mean accepting updated terms unless you deactivate your account.

Slack links to supporting materials like subprocessors, security practices, data request resources, transparency reporting, and data export guidance. That makes it easier for users and organizations to evaluate operational privacy practices.