Does Upwork listen in on your conversations with clients?

[hayyuzair]

Hi, 

I am new to the platform and want to know if Upwork listens in on audio/video communications between clients and freelancers?

secondly, can we take clients off upwork if we are being paid by the hour?

[g_vasilevski]

Hi Uzair,

1. No we do not listen to the conversations/meetings between you and your client/s.

2. Taking communications with a freelancer or client off of Upwork before a contract is in place is against our Terms of Service. To learn more about this check out our announcement post Here, thank you.

[mwiggenhorn · Accepted solution]

You can only take a client off of Upwork after two years of work with that client on Upwork in terms of working with them. 

Once you have an Upwork contract, you may communicate with your client however you wish.

[hayyuzair]

thank you for answering my question.

i have another one. sorry for asking very basic questions, but i need to understand things clearly so that i do not break any rules. 

does this mean that once we have the paid by the hour contract, we can still log our hours using the upwork downloadable app while communicating with our client through other non-upwork applications, such as skype? 

[g_vasilevski]

Hi Uzair,

1. Upwork does not record or listen to any video/voice calls that you and the client will have on Upwork.

2. You can track your time until an hourly contract is closed or paused. Once the contract is closed or paused, you will not be able to log any additional hours.

3. Once an official contract is formed you and your client can use your preferred method of communication. Communicating outside of Upwork before you`re hired on an official contract is a violation of our TOS.

I would also suggest to check out our resources Here and learn more about getting started on Upwork. Thank you.

[al_jovayer]

New features of upwork is Network. Where we connect will lots of people. Can we do zoom meeting with them ? As we don't have any contract with them, Is it violation of Upwork TOS? If yes, why there is option to call with them ?

[martina_plaschka]

No it is not a violation. I guess it's assumed that freelancers networking will mostly not hire each other. If the relationship lead to a contract, it would indeed be a violation to talk outside of upwork, but you usually don't do that with your network anyway. 

Interesting question, though. 

[LuiggiR]

Hi AL Jovayer,

When you connect with a freelancer via Upwork, communications must still take place on Upwork. You will be able to communicate with freelancers who have accepted your request to connect using Upwork Messages and use the integrated Zoom feature. Feel free to check out the responses our product managers posted here about this topic for more information.

[hayyuzair]

thank you for answering my question. i have one more please.

are the conversations recoreded?

[prestonhunter]

re: "...want to know if Upwork listens in on audio/video communications between clients and freelancers?"

I think it would be cool if my conversations were listened to. I know my discussions about database design would be fascinating for any listener.

But I know that Upwork doesn't listen to the calls.