A Safe Space for Chats

In my last post, I mentioned that we're currently looking at self-hosted NextCloud Talk as our communication service for company chats and video calls. But why is this decision so important? Can't we just use Teams or Slack like everyone else?

For our mail service, we chose Proton Mail because we wanted our mail to be safe from prying eyes, and also because we want to have our mail data stored under EU privacy laws. You’ll understand that move, right? Because your company email holds many secrets.

Well, surprise: so does your company chat service.

Over the years I’ve seen things like username/passwords, api keys, sensitive documents and applicants’ resumes being shared over Teams and Slack. Exactly because chat seems more transient than email, people tend to trust their secrets to it more easily. A company-wide password manager helps a bit, if there is one. But even then the conversations themselves may hold information you wouldn’t want to fall in the wrong hands.

That’s why we’re looking for an alternative.

While self-hosting may only be an option for tech enthusiasts like us, our experience with a product like NextCloud might just be useful for you, if you’re looking for an alternative too.

I’m interested to hear which communication service your company uses. Have you ever thought about the security implications of using it?