This Privacy Notice provides a summary of how your personal data will be used when you use Stack Overflow for Teams: Free, Basic & Business, with our Slack integration. Stack Overflow’s Full Privacy Notice can be accessed via this link.

About Stack Overflow for Teams Integration with Slack

Stack Overflow Limited (“we” or “us”) takes the privacy and security of personal information seriously. This Privacy Notice explains who we are and how we collect, use, disclose, and safeguard your personal information when you, your organisation, authorised user or team administrators (“you”) use Stack Overflow for Teams Slack Integration (Slack Integration or the “Application”). It also explains your rights in relation to your personal information and how to contact us.

Stack Overflow for Teams is a private, secure home for your team’s questions and answers.

Slack Technologies Inc (Slack) provides a collaborative platform for teams. Stack Overflow has teamed up with Slack to provide an integrated functionality, Stack Overflow for Teams Slack Integration , that facilitates collaboration across the 2 platforms.

How does it work?

Organisations that are signed up with Stack Overflow for Teams can install and authorize an integration to use an integrated version of Stack Overflow for Teams.

Our Slack integration allows your organization to connect its internal communication tool with its internal knowledge repository. The integration lets you:

• Search through your Team's content to find answers to your most pressing questions.
• Stay up-to-date on your Team's latest answers and information with automated notifications.
• Capture the questions and answers that quickly get lost in your Team's chat.

Stack Overflow as Controller

Stack Overflow is the controller for certain personal information that it holds about your organisation such as names and contact details of administrators, billing information, geo location, IP address and other information gathered from the App. Some of this data may be held by us as independent controller while your organisation may be controller for some of it.

Your organisation (Customer), is the controller for any personal information processed within the App following the integration. As the controller, it is the Customer’s responsibility to comply with all relevant data protection laws and regulations, including but not limited to: informing any authorised users and teams within your organization about the collection and processing of their data in an appropriate privacy notice; having a lawful basis for collecting and processing data, including where required, obtaining necessary consent. Please review your organisation’s privacy policy for more information on how your personal data will be used and how you can exercise your rights.

Stack Overflow as Processor

When you choose to complete the Slack integration with Stack Overflow for Teams, Stack Overflow acts as processor in connection with any personal information that it processes as part of the service it provides. For this reason, Customers are required to agree to a Data Processing Agreement in compliance with Article 28 of the GDPR.

Personal information we collect about you as controller

When you install the Slack App and give permissions to integrate Slack with Stack Overflow for Teams, we will collect and use the following personal information about you:

• Authentication details and credentials for the Slack app, including the base URL for your Slack instance, an identifying key and an access token.
• The slack display name of the account that installed the SO for teams integration on slack.
• Slack workspace information including ID, access tokens, channel IDs and Slack username.
• Analytics data about your actions within SO for teams
• We associate your account in Slack to your account in SO for Teams to make notifications possible.
• We automatically collect your IP address, browser and device characteristics, operating system, language preferences, referring URLs, device name, country, location, information about how and when you use our Application and other technical information. This information is needed to maintain the security and operation of our Application.

The Application may request access or permissions to track location-based information or use certain features from your device. You can change the access or permission granted to the Application at any time using your device’s settings.

How your personal information is collected

We collect this information in the following ways:

• Directly within SO for Teams and related cookies
• from cookies on our website - for more information on our use of cookies, please see our cookie policy
• Through data received from slack via the Integration
• Through our IT systems logs

How and why we use your personal information

Under data protection law, we can only use your personal information if we have a proper reason for doing so, eg:

• to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations;
• for the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract;
• for our legitimate interests or those of a third party; or
• where you have given consent.
• A legitimate interest is when we have a business or commercial reason to use your information, so long as this is not overridden by your own rights and interests.

Once installed and within the Slack App, you give your permission to complete the integration and activate any relevant teams and for any personal information on stackoverflow.com to be shared with any third parties we have integrated with to provide you with the functionality. You can withdraw your permission at any time, but if you do, you will no longer be able to access the App.

More information is provided in the table below:

What we use your personal information for	Our reasons
To provide SO for Teams to you	For the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract
To Integrate Slack with Stack Overflow for Teams	Your consent. You can withdraw your consent at any time, or delete the App, but if you do, you will not be able to use SO for Teams.
To prevent and detect fraud against you or Stack Overflow	For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to minimise fraud that could be damaging for us and for you
Gathering and providing information required by or relating to audits, enquiries or investigations by regulatory bodies	To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Operational reasons, such as improving efficiency, training and quality control	For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to be as efficient as we can so we can deliver the best service for you at the best price
Ensuring the confidentiality of commercially sensitive information	For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to protect trade secrets and other commercially valuable information To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Preventing unauthorised access and modifications to systems	For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, ie to prevent and detect criminal activity that could be damaging for us and for you To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations
Updating customer records	For the performance of our contract with you or to take steps at your request before entering into a contract To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations For our legitimate interests or those of a third party, eg making sure that we can keep in touch with our customers about existing orders and new products
Statutory returns	To comply with our legal and regulatory obligations

Who we share your personal information with

Once enabled, we may share certain information with Slack.

When you authorise a Slack integration and the service is enabled, Slack is authorised to connect and access information made available to Slack in accordance with Stack Overview’s agreement with Slack and any permission(s) granted by a you (including, by any authorised user(s)).

Please note that we do not share any personally identifiable information (PII) with Slack at any time.

We will share your personal information with:

• Companies within the Stack Overflow group
• Third parties approved by you, - eg social media sites you choose to link your account to or third party payment providers;
• Third-Party Service Providers - We share some of your information with third parties that perform services for us or on our behalf, including data analysis, hosting services (e.g. Microsoft Azure) and customer service as required for providing you with the core functionality of Stack Overflow for Teams.

We only allow our service providers to handle your personal information if we are satisfied that they take appropriate measures to protect your personal information. We also impose contractual obligations on service providers relating to ensure they can only use your personal information to provide services to us and to you. We may also share personal information with external auditors and regulators where required.

We may disclose and exchange information with law enforcement agencies and regulatory bodies to comply with our legal and regulatory obligations.

We may also need to share some personal information with other parties, such as potential buyers of some or all of our business or during a restructuring. Usually, information will be anonymised but this may not always be possible. The recipient of the information will be bound by confidentiality obligations.

International transfers

Our servers are located outside the EEA and we do transfer personal data outside the EEA in our capacity as a data controller. However, you should note: To deliver services to you, it is sometimes necessary for us to share your personal information outside the European Economic Area (EEA), eg:

• Sharing with your and our service providers located outside the EEA; or
• Sharing data with you if you are based outside the EEA;

Your organisation, who are controllers in their own right in respect of some of your data, may be located outside the EEA, or may transfer data outside the EEA. You should read their privacy policies for further information.

Keeping your personal information secure

We have appropriate security measures to prevent personal information from being accidentally lost, or used or accessed unlawfully. More information can be found in our full privacy notice.

How long your personal information will be kept

We will keep your personal information while you have an account with us or we are providing products and/or services to you. Thereafter, we will keep your personal information for as long as is necessary:

• to respond to any questions, complaints or claims made by you or on your behalf;
• to show that we treated you fairly; and
• to keep records required by law.

Full details of our retention policy can be found in our full privacy notice which can be accessed here.

Your Rights

Under data protection law, you have the following rights relating to your information:

Your right of access - You have the right to ask us for copies of your personal information.

Your right to rectification - You have the right to ask us to rectify information you think is inaccurate. You also have the right to ask us to complete information you think is incomplete.

Your right to erasure - You have the right to ask us to erase your personal information in certain circumstances.

Your right to restriction of processing - You have the right to ask us to restrict the processing of your information in certain circumstances.

Your right to object to processing - You have the right to object to the processing of your personal data in certain circumstances.

Your right to data portability - You have the right to ask that we transfer the information you gave us to another organisation, or to you, in certain circumstances.

Please contact us at the contact details listed below if you wish to make a request or if you believe we are unlawfully processing your personal information. You also have the right to complain to your local data protection supervisory authority, you can find their contact details here.

Specifically in relation to your right to erasure you may trigger deletion of all of your personal data directly through the Application.

If we are relying on your consent to process your personal information, you have the right to withdraw your consent at any time. Please note however that this will not affect the lawfulness of the processing before its withdrawal.

Changes to this Privacy Notice

This privacy notice was published on 17 March 2021.

We may change this privacy notice from time to time - when we do we will inform you via a notice in SO for Teams when you next use it.

How to contact us

Please contact our Data Protection Officer by emailing us at [email protected] if you have any questions about this privacy notice or the information we hold about you.