Well, I wouldn't say "risk-free", but I hear what you mean - HR isn't going to pull up a print-out of your exact words at the watercooler, with certain words and phrases circled in red sharpie.
You're right - there are definitely things I've explicitly not said in Slack and saved for in-person discussions. I forgot about that aspect of it. :/
This is why 2-party consent to record laws will become increasingly important in the future. Eventually, AR virtual presence software with chatting avatars will proliferate in the corporate world. It would be stifling if you can’t be sure that the other party isn’t recording you. Unless you specifically agreed to allow your company to record all interactions, you should be afforded a reasonable degree of privacy: merely the same amount that you get around the watercooler in an office setting. Companies that record every utterance would face pressure from the labor market, though I’d prefer a law against that too, for the sanity of the populace.
You're right - there are definitely things I've explicitly not said in Slack and saved for in-person discussions. I forgot about that aspect of it. :/