Global Job Applicant Privacy Notice

Effective: December 23, 2022

Upwork, Inc., located at 475 Brannan Street, Suite 430, San Francisco, CA, 94107, as well as its subsidiaries and affiliated companies, (“Upwork,” “we,” “us,” or “our”) respects your privacy and is committed to protecting your personal information. This Global Job Applicant Privacy Notice (“Applicant Privacy Notice”) provides an explanation of the types of personal information that Upwork is likely to collect from you and how it intends to use and disclose such information. 

Upwork is an equal employment opportunity (EEO) employer. For more information about Upwork’s EEO policy, view it near the bottom of this page. Alternative formats of this Applicant Privacy Notice are available to individuals with a disability. Please contact accommodation@upwork.com for assistance.

This Applicant Privacy Notice does not create or form part of any employment contract or contract to provide services. 

1. SCOPE 

This Applicant Privacy Notice applies to Upwork’s processing of personal information (as defined under applicable law) from and about job applicants who are residents of the European Economic Area or California in the context of the job application process. 

This Applicant Privacy Notice does not apply to our handling of data gathered about you in your role as a visitor of our website. When you interact with us as in that role, the Upwork Privacy Policy applies. 

2. CATEGORIES OF PERSONAL INFORMATION COLLECTED 

  • Identification and contact information, and related identifiers, such as your name and government identification number, home and business addresses, phone number and other contact information, email addresses, social media profile photographs, and copies of identification documents. 
  • Professional or employment-related information, including: 
  • Recruitment, employment, or engagement information, such as application forms and information included in a resume, cover letter, or otherwise provided through any application or engagement process; language skills; immigration or citizenship information; and background screening results and references. 
  • Career information, such as job titles, work history, work dates and work locations, information about skills, qualifications, experience, publications, speaking engagements, and preferences; and professional memberships. 
  • Education information, such as institutions attended, degrees, certifications, training courses, publications, and transcript information. 
  • Audio or visual information, such as voice-mails, audio/visual recordings of interviews, video recordings through closed circuit television cameras, as well as other information relating to the security of our premises (e.g. during interviews). 
  • Characteristics of protected classifications under applicable law for applicants, collected on a purely voluntary basis, except where collection is required by law, and used only in compliance with applicable laws and regulations, for diversity and inclusion reporting and related purposes. 
  • Other information, such as any other information you voluntarily choose to provide in connection with your job application (e.g. Social Media Profile Identifiers, Interview feedback, Interview decisions, Offer information, Any other information in the Customer’s Applicant Tracking System). 

3. CATEGORIES OF SOURCES FROM WHICH WE COLLECT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

  • You, such as in your job application, forms you fill out for us, assessments you complete, surveys you complete, and any information you provide us during the course of your application and interview process.
  • Vendors and service providers, such as recruiters and background check companies.
  • Third parties, such as job references, affiliated companies, professional employer organizations or staffing agencies.
  • Public internet sources, for example, social media, job boards, public profiles, and other public online sources.
  • Public records, for example, court records, and credentialing and licensing organizations.
  • Surveillance/recording technologies installed by us, such as video surveillance in common areas of Upwork facilities, voicemail technologies, webcams, and audio/video recording technologies with consent to the extent required by law.
  • Government or administrative agencies, for example, law enforcement or public health authorities.

4. PURPOSES FOR WHICH WE USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION 

A. Generally Applicable Purposes

Unless stated otherwise below, we may use your personal information for the following purposes:

Recruiting

  • To evaluate your qualifications or suitability for employment with Upwork
  • To communicate with you
  • To facilitate a pre-employment or criminal history background check
  • For identification purposes
  • For diversity and inclusion purposes
  • To arrange and manage Upwork-sponsored events
  • To create a talent pool for future job openings
  • For recordkeeping purposes
  • To demonstrate your agreement to, or acceptance of, documents presented to you, (e.g., acknowledgement of employment application, offer letter, etc.)
  • To evaluate and improve the recruiting process
  • To promote Upwork as a place to work

Monitoring, Security, and Compliance

  • To monitor use of our information systems and other electronic resources or information systems
  • To conduct internal audits
  • To conduct internal investigations
  • To protect the safety and security of Upwork’s facilities
  • To monitor compliance with our policies and applicable law
  • To exercise our rights under applicable law and to support any claim, defense, or declaration in a case or before a jurisdictional and/or administrative authority, arbitration, or mediation panel

Conducting Our Business:

  • For training purposes or quality assurance with respect to the recruiting and hiring process
  • For travel and event planning
  • To engage in crisis management
  • To manage travel reimbursements

Miscellaneous Other Purposes: 

  • To manage litigation involving Upwork, and other legal disputes and inquiries and to meet legal and regulatory requirements; 
  • In connection with a corporate transaction, sale, or assignment of assets, merger, divestiture, or other changes of control or financial status of Upwork; and  
  • To protect the rights, property, or safety of Upwork, HR Individuals, customers or others.

B. Purposes for Using Your Protected Categories of Information:

We collect information about race/ethncity, gender, sexual orientationdisability, and veteran status as necessary to comply with legal obligations, including the reporting requirements of the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Act and California’s Fair Employment and Housing Act, and for purposes of diversity analytics.  

We also use this personal information for purposes including: (a) with respect to disability and/or medical condition, as necessary, to comply with applicable law related to accommodation; and (b) with respect to age, incidentally to the use of birth date for identity verification.

We collect protected categories of personal information on a purely voluntary basis, except where required by law, and use the information only in compliance with applicable laws and regulations.

C. Deidentified Information

At times, we convert personal information into deidentified information using reasonable measures to ensure that the deidentified information cannot be associated with the individual (“Deidentified Information”). Upwork maintains Deidentified Information in a deidentified form and does not attempt to reidentify it, except that we may attempt to reidentify the information solely for the purpose of determining whether its deidentification processes ensure that the information cannot be associated with the individual. Upwork prohibits vendors, by contract, from attempting to reidentify our Deidentified Information.  

Note: This Applicant Privacy Notice does not cover health information governed by the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act), or California’s Confidentiality of Medical Information Act (CMIA).

5. HOW WE MAY DISCLOSE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION 

We may disclose personal information of job applicants to the following types of entities or in the following circumstances (where applicable): 

  • Internally and to Affiliates. We may disclose your personal information to affiliates and other Upwork personnel involved in the recruiting and hiring process. 
  • Service Providers. Upwork may need to make some of your personal information available to service providers, such as travel and expense providers, background check companies, human resources suppliers, and employment agencies or recruiters, where applicable. 
  • Legal Compliance. We may share your information when required to do so by law, regulation, or court order or in response to a request for assistance by the police or other law enforcement agency. 
  • Litigation Purposes. We may share your information to seek legal advice from our external lawyers or in connection with litigation with a third party. 
  • Business Transaction Purposes. We may also disclose personal information in connection with a merger, acquisition or other strategic transaction (e.g., to a potential purchaser of Upwork or any of its affiliates). 
  • At Your Request. We may also disclose personal information to fulfill your requests. 

Upwork neither “sells” nor “shares” your personal information for the purposes of cross-context behavioral advertising.

6. HOW LONG WE KEEP YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION

If Upwork hires you, the information collected about you during the job application process may become part of your personnel file and may be used to administer our relationship and for related reporting and recordkeeping purposes. We will retain this application information for the entire duration of your working relationship with us and for as long thereafter as permitted or required by applicable law. Upwork makes its document retention schedule available to personnel for review.

Upwork will retain information of applicants who are not hired for four (4) years after the record is collected. These records will be retained for our internal recordkeeping and reporting purposes in compliance with applicable law, including California Government Code § 12946. During that time, we may use your information to consider you for positions in addition to the position(s) for which you initially applied.

7. YOUR PRIVACY RIGHTS AND HOW TO EXERCISE THEM

A. If you are located in the European Economic Area (EEA), United Kingdom (UK) or Switzerland:

You have a number of rights under applicable data protection laws in relation to your personal information. Under certain circumstances, you have the right to:

  • Have access to your personal information by submitting a request to us;
  • Have your personal information deleted;
  • Have your personal information corrected if it is wrong;
  • Have the processing of your personal information restricted;
  • Object to further processing of your personal information, including to object to marketing from us;
  • Make a data portability request;
  • Withdraw any consent you have provided to us;
  • Restrict any automatic processing of your personal information; and
  • Complain to the appropriate Supervisory Authority.

To exercise any of these rights, please contact us as outlined in the “Contact Us” section below.

B. If you are a resident of California:

Under CCPA, as amended by the CPRA, you have a number of rights in relation to your personal information:

  • Right to Know: You have the right to submit a verifiable request for copies of specific pieces of your personal information collected in the preceding 12 months and for information about our collection, use, and disclosure of your personal information during that same 12-month time period. In addition, you have a right to know the categories of your personal information that we have sold or shared for cross-context behavioral advertising and the parties to which those categories were sold or shared. 
  • Right to Delete: You have the right to submit a verifiable request for the deletion of personal information that you have provided to us.  
  • Right to Correct: You have the right to request that we correct any inaccurate personal information we maintain about you, taking into account the nature of the personal information and the purposes for which we are processing such personal information. We will use commercially reasonable efforts to correct such inaccurate personal information about you.
  • Your Right to Limit Use of Sensitive Personal Information: You have the right to request that we limit our use of any sensitive personal information to those uses which are necessary to perform the Services or for other specifically-enumerated business purposes under the CCPA, as amended by the CPRA.

C. How to exercise your rights

Upwork will respond to requests related to personal information in accordance with applicable law if it can verify the identity of the individual submitting the request. You can exercise these rights by reaching out to us in the Contact Us section below. California users may also call 866 262-4478.

Click here to learn more about opting out of the disclosure of your personal information for purposes of cross-context behavioral advertising or the sale of your personal information, and about restricting the use and disclosure of your sensitive personal information to permitted purposes.

D. Verifying your request

Only you, or a person that you authorize to act on your behalf, may make a request related to your personal information. In the case of access and deletion, your request must be verifiable before we can fulfill such request. Verifying your request will require you to provide sufficient information for us to reasonably verify that you are the person about whom we collected personal information or a person authorized to act on your behalf. We will only use the personal information that you have provided in a verifiable request in order to verify your request. We cannot respond to your request or provide you with personal information if we cannot verify your identity or authority. Please note that we may charge a reasonable fee or refuse to act on a request if such request is excessive, repetitive or manifestly unfounded.

E. Upwork’s non-discrimination and non-retaliation policy 

Upwork will not unlawfully discriminate or retaliate against you for exercising your privacy rights under applicable law.

8. CHANGES TO THIS PRIVACY POLICY

If we change this Applicant Privacy Notice, we will post those changes on this page and update the modification date above. 

9. CONTACT US

For requests or questions related to this Applicant Privacy Notice, please contact us at ask-hris@upwork.com.