sannansyed

I have posted this here: https://law.stackexchange.com/questions/104931/is-it-legal-for-a-website-to-reveal-the-earnings-of-the-freelancers-publicly-wit on Law StackExchange (a sister site of StackOverflow) because I have been wondering if what Fiverr is doing is even legal in most countries. Have a look at this post, and if you have anything of value to add, please do so after reading the site's tour and https://law.stackexchange.com/help/how-to-answer @priyank_mod I am pinging you because this might be of interest to you as well.

@anantafi @greenwordpress Yes, I am well aware at this point due to the discussion that happened at the start of the post (see the accepted answer). I appreciate you guys answering, but let's not add more answers that state the exact same thing, and perhaps focus more on the problem mentioned in this post, or discuss if any updates happen to its status. Once again, I appreciate you posting, and don't mean to discourage you, but this is just so that it is easier for future readers of the post to follow along what was discussed.

@listing_guys Well, it depends on a case by case basis. In certain gigs, it might prove useful, while in others, such as some software development ones, it might be entirely counterproductive because a lot of the times, certain things cost significantly different than others with the same development time, while they still technically fit within one gig. Also, sometimes, the time would be an inadequate representation of the time actually spent on the project. For example, in certain cases, there would be buyers that respond promptly while others who have a pattern of responding only after 5 or 6 business days and ending up prolonging the project. There are multiple factors that might show the time more than double, or in rare cases, even tripple than the actual time spent on the project itself. All in all, I think this is more counterproductive in a lot of cases which is the reason I am proposing to make this something a seller themselves can turn on/off instead of enforcing it. Oh, and not to mention the very slight and minor issue of them violating the personal rights of many individuals by revealing information about their earning without their consent 😊 /s. If you still consider this a great feature, then perhaps it would be helpful for you to provide some reasons for it.

@priyank_mod I am glad to see you already made a post on that.. But most importantly, I am glad to see that so many people care about this! Btw, regarding the posts, I am not sure how the process is on this website. Are similar posts okay here or do we have the same system as StackExchange to delete/close them? I can go ahead and remove my post if it is the latter case. Edit: Also, regarding the email, I can write it earlier than next month but am quite busy for a while and want to right a weightful, evidence-loaded email. So when I said next month, I meant next month at max. And I don't think it hurts for multiple people sending them the same email, I think it's probably even better as it would signify the weight of this problem. So I welcome everyone to write to them about it.

I am pinging the people who currently showed concern regarding this so that they may help in getting the attention of more people towards this problem. I hope you guys don't mind. @mandyzines @whatpress @lima_designer @nesa66 @amazon_express

I have decided to write an email to Fiverr's customer support to request the solution of this problem by having a feature added for sellers to toggle their preference to show their earnings or not sometime later next month. However, for it to even be considered as an option, this post needs enough people to agree with the fact that Fiverr is acting unethically by showing the earnings of sellers publicly without their consent and that this problem is detrimental for them to stay on the platform. My hopes aren't very high, but if this issue gets some serious attention, comments are posted in agreement, more such posts are created, etc., then we might be able to make a change.

@whatpress Agreed. Even the lowest quality freelancing sites respect the fact that publicly revealing your earnings is your individual right, and to whatever extent you see fit.

@lima_designer They can surely be inconsistent. I have noticed that it doesn't really show up in the mobile app the last time I checked but even then, I feel like most serious buyers use the website.

Well, I sure do hope it's included in the seller plus subscription if that ever happens and they don't charge additionally. But even then, It's just extremely weird to show this without consent. I don't know the laws but considering Fiverr's track record with the recent updates, I feel like they didn't consult the lawyers with this one. I think there's probably a law, perhaps in Europe, protecting people from sites publishing their private data, especially about something as sensitive as earnings, without their prior consent. Anyhow, in my case, it's consistently up. I refreshed it many times while being logged out, and on multiple devices. It doesn't show up yet on the mobile app, but still does on the website consistently.

When I visit one of my gigs on Fiverr, even when logged out (Inside an icognito tab), it shows me the amount of money each project has made me and its duration, like so: "PKR123-PKR789 Price 4 weeks Duration" I don't mind the duration, as it may be helpful in certain cases to know a seller's efficiency, but I don't want every random person visiting my gig to be able to see, even in a range, how much I make from any of my projects. I visited my gig today and was outraged seeing that they revealed this on my gig without prior consent from me. Do I not have the right to decide if my earnings should be public or not? I am currently not able to find any setting to change this in the Fiverr website and mobile app, but I really hope it exists. If it does not, then I hope this post gets enough traction and support from other sellers that it reaches Fiverr and makes them realize that they cannot just reveal anything they want from a seller's private info without consent just to gain the support of buyers. That, or for any other reasons they may have.

If what you say is exactly as it is, then the client has no basis to report you. They are either foolish or are trying to threaten you to get free work. Don't take a new project from them, maintain your politeness and professionalism throughout the conversation no matter how degraded said client gets, and simply refuse any more free work. All of that should go without saying. Secondly, their behavior is highly inappropriate and objectionable. If you can create some content with an email to the Fiverr support team and include screenshots as evidence as well (even though they can visualize the conversations) and send it, there's no reason to think that they will not side with you. I am aware that the Fiverr support can be unfair at times and unjustifiably side with the buyers, but if, once again, everything is as you say, then this buyer is ruining their case (no pun intended) with their own hands. I haven't handled someone who shot themselves in the foot this blatantly. My very few bitter experiences on Fiverr have only been with the more subtle type.

It looks like Fiverr silently fixed this : D. The local time of my client is shown correctly now (4 hours difference between BST and GMT+5).

Off-topic from this issue, I think there should be another post concerning AI-generated posts and how they should be avoided similar to StackOverflow: https://meta.stackoverflow.com/questions/421831/temporary-policy-generative-ai-e-g-chatgpt-is-banned?cb=1

Yeah, sorry about the misunderstanding in my reply, I am really sleepy right now so I didn't read what I typed... 🤦‍♂️ Please read my most recent message for clarification that the attached image has nothing to do with Fiverr 😅.

For context, the dude in the Twitter doesn't have anything to do with Fiverr, I was talking about Fiverr in my own case (or another seller's) if something like that happens. The dude in the Tweet is talking about a recruiter from what it seems.