Upwork Screen Capture censoring

[markoackovski]

Hi community, 

I've been avoiding time tracking, even though I've done it, for the simple reason of privacy. I've got stuff on my screen that I might not want my clients to see, stuff such as: folders on my bookmarks bar from other clients/projects, my Figma homepage that has other projects listed, etc etc. You get the point. 

One way of avoiding this would be recording just one screen, opening your app on your "inactive" screen, then moving it on your work screen. But that option doesn't exist. 

Another way would be deleting screenshots that contain sensitive info, but that's also impossible since you'd be deleting your time along with the image. 

I think there should be a censoring option on the screenshots, a way you could blur out sensitive data on your screen. 

Opinions? Solutions? 

[prestonhunter]

I understand where you are coming from, but the suggestions you have made here are not going to happen. Sorry.

If you need to work with sensitive data, you have a number of options:

- fixed-price contracts

- manually logged time

- delete screenshots that contain sensitive data

- don't worry about it

Certainly there are lots of freelancers who don't worry about it. These are, after all, screenshots and not text captures. The information is not published on the Internet for everyone to see. The screenshots are securely stored and eventually purged.

[markoackovski]

That's not really a good approach though. I mean Upwork is not some mom and pop shop, it's a multimilion dollar company with lots of resources and this should be an available option. 

I mean you could screen record a chat message from another client while writing to the client you're working with on the curent contract, just by accident. You probably get how this would be less than ideal, as a real work problem, info on terms, availability, whatever. This is not me being paranoid about hackers or the government lol 🙂

Upwork, if YOU'RE LISTENING check this out:

- Every time someone deletes a screenshot you lose money. That is 5-10% of every screen shot deleted because there's no censoring implemented, and that probably amounts to MILLIONS yearly. 

Just saying, implement this, and you'll get your money's worth thousand fold. You can thank me later.

I mean it's just drawing/dragging a couple of rectangles over an image and blurring out that portion. It's really not that diffucult to implement. 

Oh, and Upwork, if you do implement this, I want some recognition for saving you a truck load of money. Maybe a badge on my profile page saying "This dude get's it", or a job, or maybe a bonus in the form of a Harley bike or something, maybe all three 😄 I'll let you decide. 

[rverang]

---

Marko A wrote:

Upwork, if YOU'RE LISTENING check this out:

- Every time someone deletes a screenshot you lose money. That is 5-10% of every screen shot deleted because there's no censoring implemented, and that probably amounts to MILLIONS yearly. 

---

Manual time can be used to replace deleted screenshots. It's a bit of an additional work and not protected as well but deleting the screenshot doesn't mean that time is lost forever.

[jfred90]

I've been looking for an answer to this very issue. There are alternatives, but the hourly with screen-recording has payment protection and some projects don't require a fixed price. I don't want to force a fixed-price contract on a client if it doesn't benefit them or myself.

It would be nice for us as freelancers to have the option to redact any information that doesn't have to do with the work being performed. I don't mind having the screen recording on, since it helps establish trust and is backup proof of the work, but we should have more control over what is being sent out to the client.

[ArjayM]

Hi Joshua,

We understand your concern and we truly appreciate you sharing your feedback/suggestions here in the Community. However, please note that when you use the Upwork Desktop App to log your time, it takes a snapshot six times per hour. Upwork then plugs your hourly activity and work-in-progress snapshots into the appropriate billing segments in your Work Diary. It also records the total number of mouse clicks, scroll actions, and keystrokes per segment. It does not record what you clicked on or typed.

With that said, freelancers can add, delete, or edit time in their Work Diary. Your client can edit your activity labels but not your memos or anything else. I assure you that we'll continue sharing your feedback with the team and providing updates to the Community about the team's initiatives regarding this feature.

[prestonhunter]

It's fine.

There are already so many workarounds for handling something that is a very rare, extreme use case.

[jeremiah-brown]

**edited for Community Guidelines**

Now that my experience with this question is out of the way...

Yes, I wish they had a way to screen out certain details on a screen shot.  Something like a highlighter or a way to blur only selected items so you don't lose time because of a deleted screen shot.  That deleted screenshot forces you to enter it as manual time (which does not fall under payment protection).

Also - you CAN limit the time tracker to only record your active screen.  Open the time tracker, navigate to the small gear (settings/options) icon in the lower corner, and there will be an option to select all screens or just the active screen.

[markoackovski]

A lot of truth in this post. 

[jeremiah-brown]

The only reason I found that active single screen option was because I posted this very same question.  As usual, I was beaten up over it because I wasn't following some unspoken rule.  Finally someone offered useful advice and told me how to limit it to one screen.  I know it's not what you're looking/asking for, but I found that it is a drastic improvement.

[markoackovski]

My condolences for your past efforts 🙂 

Doesn't active screen mean that it will capture any window that's active at the moment, regardless of which monitor it's at? Meaning if I have like 3 monitors, which is my setup atm, it will theoretically capture all 3 at some moment in time?

Or is the screen with the Upwork app open the "active" one?

To further clarify, I have an extra Macbook on top of the one I use, a PC, an iPad, couple of phones, so it's really not for media or browsing or listening to music in the background. It's really about privacy 🙂

[jeremiah-brown · Accepted solution]

No, it will only capture the screen where activity is taking place (mouse clicks, key strokes, etc).

For example, if you start the time tracker and begin performing work on screen 2, screen 2 will be your active screen.  Lets say you click on screen 3 to retrieve a file and the camera suddenly takes a screenshot - it will capture whatever is on screen 3 (the active screen at that moment).

Its not a perfect privacy fix, but it helps more than simply taking one big picture of all open screens.