Upwork DIGITAL

This audit reports only what the retrieved sources state. “No public evidence identified” means that none of the pages retrieved this session supports the claim. It does not prove absence. Fetch failures and other access problems are logged separately in the research notes.

Enterprise Technology Stack & Vendor Relationships

Israeli-origin software and services. No public evidence identified that Upwork licenses or integrates products from Check Point, Wiz, SentinelOne, CyberArk, Nice, Verint, Claroty or Palo Alto Networks. The FY2025 Form 10-K names only AWS as its host and refers to unnamed “industry-leading fraud detection solutions” that it will integrate. ¹

Payment-provider link. Wikipedia states that Payoneer lists Upwork among its customers, but it does not describe the scope, the period or whether the relationship is ongoing. ² A February 2020 Calcalist article, more than five years old, describes Payoneer as based in central Israel with 830 of 1,200 employees in Israel; it does not mention Upwork. ³ The status of this Payoneer relationship in 2025 or 2026 is unknown, and no source retrieved shows that Upwork payment data is processed in Israel. ²

Other payment partners. In September 2025 Wise Platform announced that Upwork’s “Direct to Local Bank” withdrawals to select markets would be routed through Wise; the article does not name countries and does not mention Israel. ⁴

Scale of dependency. The FY2025 10-K states that Upwork currently hosts the marketplace, serves customers and supports operations using AWS, which makes AWS the primary cloud platform. No source retrieved shows Israeli-origin technology embedded in Upwork’s core infrastructure. ¹

Integrators and outsourcers. No public evidence identified of a named systems integrator or digital-transformation consultancy deploying Israeli-origin technology for Upwork; the 10-K excerpt names none. ¹

Named-entity record (each name searched separately; “searched, none found” means no Israel, defence or surveillance link in the retrieved sources).

• Upwork Inc. (the target; Delaware corporation headquartered at 530 Lytton Avenue, Palo Alto): searched against Israel, IDF, IMOD, Project Nimbus, Unit 8200, Who Profits and AFSC; searched, none found. ^{1, 5, 6}
• Upwork Global, Inc. (subsidiary; Hayden Brown holds President, CEO and Director titles there): searched with the target name; none found. ⁷
• Lifted (wholly owned enterprise subsidiary, announced 19 August 2025): searched; none found. ^{8, 1}
• Bubty B.V. and Ascen Inc. (acquired by Lifted in 2025 for a combined $58.4 million in cash, per the 10-K): searched; the retrieved coverage gives no Israeli link. ^{1, 9}
• Objective AI, Inc. (acquired 2024): searched; none found. The 10-K does not give its location. ¹
• Hayden Brown (President, CEO and director since December 2019; about 0.64% holder per the MarketScreener page as of 2026-09-17; previously Microsoft strategy and M&A, LivePerson corporate development, oDesk): searched against Israel and defence ties; none found. ⁷
• Thomas Layton (Chair per Engine Capital coverage): not searched individually; named only in the Engine Capital coverage. ¹⁰
• Greg Gretsch and Gary Steele (directors named in Engine Capital coverage; Steele described as general manager at Splunk): not searched individually; no Israel or defence link appears in that coverage. ¹⁰
• Engine Capital (activist holder of roughly 4% per CNBC/NBC; below the 10% threshold): searched; its September 2024 demands concern board composition and costs, with no Israel link. ^{10, 11}
• Tides Foundation (holder of a warrant for 500,000 shares at $0.01 per the 10-K): searched with Upwork Foundation, Israel and Palestine terms; none found. ¹
• Holders of 10% or more: the 10-K excerpt names no principal stockholder. ¹

Act record: cloud hosting. The acting entity is Upwork Inc., the recipient is AWS (the filing does not give a legal entity name), and the channel is the 10-K on sec.gov; the earliest and latest dated observation is the FY2025 filing for the year ended 31 December 2025; status is continuing as of that filing, with no later evidence retrieved. ¹

Surveillance, Biometrics & Retail Technology

Facial recognition and biometrics. No public evidence identified that Upwork uses Trigo, BriefCam, AnyVision/Oosto, Trax or comparable Israeli-origin biometric or retail-analytics products; the 10-K describes a digital marketplace and does not mention such products. ¹

Predictive analytics and monitoring. No public evidence identified of Israeli-origin predictive-policing, sentiment-analysis, social-media-monitoring or workforce-surveillance tools used by Upwork. ¹

Third-party deployment. The 10-K says Upwork relies on third-party partners and vendors to store and process customer information and does not name them beyond AWS. No public evidence identified that Israeli surveillance technology reaches Upwork through those vendors. ¹

Cloud Infrastructure, Data Residency & Sovereign Cloud Participation

Data centres in Israel. No public evidence identified that Upwork operates, leases or co-locates data-centre infrastructure in Israel; its only stated property is a Palo Alto headquarters lease of about 21,615 square feet expiring September 2032. ¹

Government cloud contracts. Project Nimbus is a $1.2 billion Israeli government cloud contract announced in April 2021 whose contractors are Google and Amazon; the visible text of the page does not mention Upwork. ⁶ The 10-K and the Nimbus page together show that Amazon is both Upwork’s host and a Nimbus contractor, but no retrieved source links Upwork to Nimbus or to any Israeli government cloud programme. ^{1, 6}

Data sovereignty and resilience services. No public evidence identified that Upwork markets or contracts digital-sovereignty or resilience services to Israeli state or military bodies. ¹

Data-exposure principle. Upwork stores and processes customers’ proprietary, confidential and personal information through itself and third-party partners and vendors, and relies on cross-border frameworks such as the EU-US Data Privacy Framework. ¹ It also holds a subsidiary licensed as an internet escrow agent for marketplace payments. ¹ The only cloud location named is AWS, and no retrieved source places Upwork data processing, storage or R&D in Israel or under Israeli-controlled infrastructure. ¹

Defence, Intelligence & Security Sector Technology Relationships

Military and intelligence contracts. No public evidence identified of any contract or partnership between Upwork and the Israeli Ministry of Defense, the IDF or Israeli intelligence agencies; a search pairing Upwork with Project Nimbus, Unit 8200, the IDF and the Israeli Ministry of Defense returned no Upwork link. ^{6, 1}

Dual-use technology provision. No public evidence identified that Upwork’s platform has been reported as deployed for Israeli military, intelligence or law-enforcement surveillance. ¹

Offensive cyber and weapons technology. No public evidence identified of Upwork developing, selling or maintaining offensive cyber capabilities. ¹

Constructive notice (post-19 July 2024 and post-November 2024). No public evidence identified of any Upwork technology provision to Israeli state bodies before or after those dates. ^{1, 6}

Security-sector context unrelated to Israel. On 4 June 2026 AP reported a Five Eyes bulletin saying Chinese intelligence used fake job adverts on LinkedIn, Indeed and Upwork; the article carries no Upwork statement. ¹²

AI, Algorithmic & Autonomous Systems

AI/ML provision to state bodies. No public evidence identified that Upwork provides AI, machine-learning or computer-vision systems to Israeli state, military or security bodies. ¹ Wikipedia lists Upwork’s acquisitions of Headroom (AI video conferencing, from 2023) and ObjectiveAI (search-as-a-service, 2024) without any Israeli customer or domicile. ¹³

Training data and model development. No public evidence identified that Upwork models were trained on civilian population data, intercepted communications or surveillance-derived datasets from Israel or the occupied territories. ¹

Autonomous systems and lethality. No public evidence identified of Upwork providing target-generation, automated threat-detection or autonomous tracking systems to Israeli forces. ¹

Technology Ecosystem & R&D Footprint

Israeli R&D centres. No public evidence identified of an Upwork R&D centre, engineering office or accelerator in Israel; the 10-K reports a Palo Alto headquarters, a hybrid model and a workforce in which most employees and all contractors are remote, and a search for an Upwork Tel Aviv office returned nothing about Upwork. ¹

Acquisitions and investments. The 10-K records Lifted’s 2025 acquisitions of Bubty and Ascen for $58.4 million in cash and the 2024 acquisition of Objective AI, Inc. ¹ Coverage dated 8 August 2025 describes Bubty as a workforce-management platform and Ascen as a global compliance and employer-of-record provider, without any Israeli link. ⁹ no public evidence identified of acquisitions of Israeli companies or investments in Israeli startups or funds by Upwork. ^{1, 13}

Act record: Lifted acquisitions. The acquiring entity is Lifted (a wholly owned subsidiary of Upwork Inc.), the targets are Bubty B.V. and Ascen Inc., the channels are the FY2025 10-K on sec.gov and trade press from 8 and 19 August 2025, and the status is completed in 2025 per the filing. ^{1, 9, 8}

Patents and IP. No public evidence identified of patent portfolios, licences or co-development arrangements between Upwork and Israeli entities or institutions such as Technion, Hebrew University or the Weizmann Institute. ¹

Historical origins [pre-2020]. Wikipedia places the founding of Elance in 1998 in Jersey City and of oDesk in 2003 as a U.S.-Greece collaboration, with the merger in 2013 and the Upwork rename in 2015; none of this involves Israel. ¹³

Civil Society Scrutiny & Regulatory History

NGO and academic reports. The Who Profits company index page showed only the first 20 of about 24 pages of rows, with Upwork not among the visible rows, so the check is inconclusive. ⁵ The summary of the OHCHR 2023 database update says 112 enterprises were reviewed and 15 removed, and it does not list company names, so Upwork’s status could not be tested from it. ¹⁴ no public evidence identified of an NGO or UN report in the retrieved pages that names Upwork in connection with Israeli technology or settlements. ^{5, 14}

Boycott and divestment. No public evidence identified of a boycott, divestment or sanctions campaign against Upwork over technology provision. Wikipedia describes Fiverr, a competitor, as an Israeli multinational with headquarters in Tel Aviv and describes Upwork as an American marketplace. ¹⁵

Policy statements and asymmetry. On 7 March 2022 Upwork announced it was suspending operations in Russia and Belarus, effective 1 May 2022, with CEO Hayden Brown saying the invasion “has called into question our mission, values”, and pledged $1 million to Direct Relief International. ¹⁶ Wikipedia lists the service area as worldwide except Russia and Belarus. ¹³ no public evidence identified of a comparable Upwork statement on Israel or Gaza in the retrieved sources. ^{16, 13}

Act record: Russia and Belarus suspension. The acting entity is Upwork (the article does not give a legal name), the affected parties are freelancers and clients in Russia and Belarus, the channel is Upwork’s announcement as reported by lb.ua on 7 March 2022, the earliest and latest dated observations are 7 March 2022 and 1 May 2022 (effective date), and the status is continuing per the Wikipedia service-area entry. ^{16, 13}

Regulatory and legal actions. No public evidence identified of regulatory inquiries, export-control actions or sanctions investigations about Upwork’s technology sales to Israeli state entities. ¹ The 10-K says Upwork has OFAC-related compliance policies and technology that may not be fully effective, and that it may inadvertently serve persons in embargoed countries. ¹

Sanctions-compliance blocking (Ukraine). On 16 July 2025 Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation asked CEO Hayden Brown to review mass blocks of Ukrainian freelancers; the ministry cited registration in occupied territories and GPS-related geolocation errors as likely causes. ¹⁷ On 1 August 2025 Minister Mykhailo Fedorov announced that Upwork had begun unblocking accounts. ¹⁸ On 7 August 2025 dozens of freelancers reported being blocked again, and the ministry said it was investigating and had working communication with Upwork. ¹⁹ The acting entity is Upwork (legal name not stated in these pages), the recipients are Ukrainian account holders, the channel is Ukrainian outlets unn.ua and dev.ua, the observations span 16 July to 7 August 2025, and the status after 7 August 2025 is unknown. ^{17, 18, 19}

Governance and shareholder scrutiny. On 13 September 2024 Engine Capital, holding about 4% per CNBC, wrote to the board calling for a board overhaul, and named Chairman Thomas Layton, Greg Gretsch and Gary Steele; the letter did not mention Israel. ¹⁰ Upwork replied the same day that it values investor input and cited a rise in adjusted EBITDA margin from (2)% to 21% and $100 million of 2024 buybacks. ¹¹ Whether the board changed afterwards is not established in the retrieved sources. ¹⁰