Jul 8, 2024 - rough notes - working on this while working, between meetings, and taking care of family, etc. if ya want, come back in a week when it is done and you will not have to read anything out of order or notes... thanks - pt
Reflections on Salesforce’s first marketing campaign: No Software
In February 2000 Salesforce launched the “No Software” campaign by staging a mock protest at Siebel Systems' user conference. Salesforce was going to “end software”. Software was the old way, Salesforce was the new way.
Time to bring this back, but for Salesforce agents? The END of ... ?
Ultimate Tech Company Hypocrisy
There's a special kind of corporate irony in the tech world, and it's coming from the company that literally built its entire identity around being the anti-software crusader. Salesforce, the company that staged fake protests and chanted "End of Software" slogans back in 2000, is now doing something that would make even the most exploitative software companies... blush.
Starting July 17, 2025, Salesforce is forcing all Slack customers into an AI training program that will hoover up their private conversations, emotional moments, and confidential business communications. This isn't opt-in. This is opt-out only, buried in settings panels that are sprawling, labyrinthine panels of sliders and landmines where customers can easily misread it and accidentally compromise their org's privacy.
"No Software" to "No Choice"
The historical context makes this particularly f'ed. When Marc Benioff founded Salesforce in 1999, he positioned the company as the liberator of businesses trapped by predatory software licensing models. What's changed? Billions. The famous "No Software" campaign wasn't just marketing - it was a promise that technology should serve users, not exploit them.
Benioff and team hired actors to protest outside Siebel Systems conferences, carrying signs that read "End Software" and chanting anti-software slogans. They threw a military-themed party where attendees tossed "pieces of software" into trash bins. The message was clear: software companies were the enemy, and Salesforce was here to free businesses from their tyranny. Don't become the thing ya hate, amirite?
Fast forward 25 years, and Salesforce has become everything they once protested against. They're not just collecting data - they're actively blocking third-party tools from accessing Slack data, even when customers explicitly give permission. It's a "strategic lockdown of ambient, emotional, and operational data across workplaces" with one clear motive: total control.
The Data Ownership Shell Game
What makes this particularly insidious is how Salesforce is playing word games with data ownership. Marc Benioff has repeatedly stated "Our customers' data belongs to them, it's their data" and even warned that "These LLMs are hungry for our data". Yet when customers try to exercise control over their own data, they're met with deliberately confusing settings panels and hidden opt-out options that require emailing secret addresses.
The Adafruit team discovered they had to email a "secret Salesforce address to disable something not labeled 'AI' - but 'machine learning'. When they asked their Salesforce rep for help, they were told "AI is all around us, but let me just message my Slack Agent to lay off you". The rep might not have even been human - a perfect metaphor for how disconnected Salesforce has become from its founding principles.
The Numbers Game
This isn't just about privacy violations - it's about market manipulation. Salesforce has been systematically blocking competitors from accessing Slack data while simultaneously building their own AI products with that same data. Companies can no longer help customers search their own Slack messages, effectively "hampering your ability to use your data with your chosen enterprise AI platform".
Meanwhile, Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff announced in 2025 that the company won't be hiring any software engineers because AI is handling their work. The same AI that's being trained on your private conversations, your team's frustrations, and your business secrets.
The Corporate Doublespeak
The worse part is how Salesforce frames this data grab as customer protection. They claim they're "reinforcing safeguards around how data accessed via Slack APIs can be stored, used, and shared. But these "safeguards" only apply to everyone except Salesforce itself.
When pressed about data ownership, Salesforce reps deflect with corporate speak about "thoughtful and transparent" AI implementation. But there's nothing thoughtful about opt-out-only policies that activate by default on July 17th. There's nothing transparent about hiding machine learning settings behind secret email addresses.
The Bigger Picture
This isn't just about Salesforce - it's about the entire trajectory of the tech industry. The company that once promised to democratize software has become the digital equivalent of a data strip mining operation. They've turned the intimate conversations of millions of workers into training data for AI systems that will eventually replace those same workers. Will there be a tool that Salesforce offer to rank the employees via their Salesforce Slack interactions, yes of course.
Salesforce built their empire by promising to free businesses from exploitative software practices. Now they're implementing the most exploitative data harvesting scheme in business software history, all while maintaining the facade of customer empowerment.
The Real End of Software
Maybe Salesforce was right about one thing: they really are bringing about the end of software. But it's not the democratizing, user-empowering end they promised in 2000. It's the end of user control, the end of data ownership, and the end of any pretending that these platforms serve anyone but their corporate lords.
The protest signs should have read "End of Privacy" instead of "End of Software." At least then we would have known what we were signing up for.
*Remember: if you're using Salesforce Slack, you have until July 17, 2025, to opt out of their AI training program. And if you're wondering who really owns your data, just ask your Salesforce rep and send them a t-shirt that says "AI is all around us" they'll need it on the stock Discords, some say Salesforce is doing more layoffs :(
Jul 8, 2024 - rough notes - working on this while working, between meetings, and taking care of family, etc. if ya want, come back in a week when it is done and you will not have to read anything out of order or notes... thanks - pt
Page last edited July 08, 2025
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