Does sharing email before a contract starts violate Upwork TOS?

[sadia_34]

Clients often ask for email address to setup a zoom call to discuss the project. Sometimes they interview a few freelancers and hire only one of them. So it may look like a freelancer shared the email address and the conversation goes outside of Upwork. Will Upwork consider this a violation of TOS? 

[cca13f63]

If a Zoom call is the only reason, why don't you share the link to the call?

[sadia_34]

asking a question instead of an answer really helps. Thank you.

[ArjayM]

Hi Sadia,

Thank you for reaching out and raising this query here in the Community. Sharing contact information before a contract has started is against Upwork's Terms of Service, and all communications must occur on Upwork before the contract starts.

That said, you can make a video or voice call on Upwork anytime by using Zoom. You'll start the call right from Upwork Messages, and you don't need to have a Zoom account. This can be done without sharing your email address.

We also encourage you to let us know if you find anything suspicious has happened by using the Flag as Inappropriate option throughout the platform. You can learn more about user reporting here.

[db3fb525]

Does anyone know what the zoom symbol looks like in Upwork?

[kim_wong]

Just click on the phone icon at the top of the Message.  You can select to start a Zoom call.

[muradmalik01]

Hi Arjay,

I work as a brand identity and UI/UX designer, and I showcase most of my case studies for previous clients on Behance and Dribbble. Is it a violation of the Terms of Service (ToS) to share links to portfolios from platforms like Behance and Dribbble?

[ArjayM]

Hi Murad,

Yes, you may! However, like the rest of your profile, posting contact info isn’t allowed in your portfolio. That means these files (and linked sites) can’t include your email address, phone number, or chat ID.

[bwest_design · Accepted solution]

From looking over the ToS, it looks like sharing your email address prior to the start of a contract would be considered a violation because it technically would allow someone to contact you outside of Upwork before they've hired you, even though that isn't your purpose in sharing that info. So, for any pre-hire discussions, it's best to set up the meeting directly through Upwork's messaging system. These use Zoom, so there should be no need to share any additional contact info for a meeting.

Here is the relevant page in the ToS: https://www.upwork.com/legal#COMMUNICATINGTHROUGH

[sadia_34]

So it means you can not share your portfolio website as well.  Sometimes I'm asked to share my Artstation profile and personal website etc. Both have 'contact me' page. I don't like the way Upwork showcase art works. I'm not sure how to convince a client to hire me without sharing these website links.

[the-right-writer]

Yes. You can only interact with a client on Upwork, before an Upwork contract is in place. Once you have an Upwork contract, you can communicate anywhere you wish. However, all money must stay within Upwork.

[lorenalopez79]

Yes, Everything has to be through the platform. I recently had my account suspended because I was sharing my resume with standard contact information, and because of this, I was violating the TOS of the platform. Thanks to this I have lost $100 in connects inversion

[yofazza]

Sharing links to portolio should be okay. The mods seems to have two different canned responses for this question.

Sharing an email address is also okay on some occasions. What's not allowed is communication outside(*), before contract. As I often said, to tell someone to sign a contract when they need my email address, sounds weird  to me.

If someone gets banned for sharing their portfolio with contact information, maybe Upwork for whatever reason determined that the sharing leads to circumvention.

Similar discussion and Upwork links in this thread.

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(*) If you share email to do Zoom calls, well that's not allowed.