Microsoft reportedly bans its employees from using Slack for security reasons and encourages them to to use the Microsoft Teams app instead
- Microsoft does not allow its employees to use Slack, GeekWire's Nat Levy and Todd Bishop reported, citing an internal document.
- While Microsoft has a rival workplace chat app, Microsoft Teams, the tech company reportedly cites security risks as the reason for its internal Slack ban.
- Slack named Microsoft as its primary competitor in a regulatory filing sent to the Securities and Exchange Commission in April, and Microsoft listed Slack among its competitors in its most recent annual report.
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Microsoft does not allow its employees to use Slack, GeekWire's Nat Levy and Todd Bishop reported, citing an internal document.
While Microsoft has a rival workplace chat app, called Microsoft Teams, the tech company reportedly cites security risks as the reason for its internal Slack ban. The company gives the following explanation in an internal list of software and online services it restricts or discourages employees from using, according to GeekWire:
Microsoft also reportedly prohibits employees from using the grammar-checking app Grammarly and the Kapersky security software. It discourages employees from using Amazon Web Services, Google Docs, PagerDuty, and the cloud version of GitHub, according to GeekWire.
Microsoft and Slack did not immediately respond to Business Insider's requests for comment.
Slack named Microsoft as its primary competitor in a regulatory filing sent to the Securities and Exchange Commission in April, and Microsoft listed Slack among its competitors in its most recent annual report. Microsoft launched Teams in 2016, seven years after Slack was founded.
Slack began listing its shares on public markets on Thursday. They closed 5% below their debut price on Friday.
Read GeekWire's full story here.
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