Qualcomm-owned Arduino quietly pushed a sweeping rewrite of its Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, and the changes mark a clear break from the open-hardware ethos that built the platform.
The new documents introduce an irrevocable, perpetual license over anything users upload, broad surveillance-style monitoring of AI features, a clause preventing users from identifying potential patent infringement, years-long retention of usernames even after account deletion, and the integration of all user data (including minors) into Qualcomm’s global data ecosystem. Military weird things and more.
Several sections effectively reshape Arduino from an open community platform into a tightly controlled corporate service with deep data extraction built in. The most striking addition:
users are now explicitly forbidden from reverse-engineering or even attempting to understand how the platform works unless Arduino gives permission. That’s a profound shift for a brand long embraced by educators, makers, researchers, and open-source advocates.
With the cloud having a rough day and many systems offline, yesterday... Anyone invested in transparency, community governance, or data rights should read these documents closely.
Links:
https://lnkd.in/efKSip3e
https://lnkd.in/eKDWCZT4
Somewhere an old Uno is whispering “this is not my beautiful life"...
Forbes did a couple press-release style "features" with incorrect information that Qualcomm or Arduino supplied, obviously Qualcomm has severe issues with fraud, acquisitions, et. this was 3 DAYS AGO - Former Qualcomm executive sentenced to prison for $180M fraud scheme. @Bill Curtis & Steve McDowell please consider a revisit...
Nakul Duggal seems to be the one that will end up taking the fall for this, the CEO of Qualcomm is not in the press release for the sale (and the press release seems like it was made by ChatGPT when you put it through those AI detectors?)..
ANY WAY -
Naukul and the Ardunio better get a ride in the over 10 Gulfstreams, which are a puzzle to investors, why so many? And why get a G800 now that's over $75m ...? That's how much Arduino has in funding...
US's Qualcomm adds G800 to corporate jet fleet...
https://lnkd.in/ddiCikpf
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Qualcomm-owned Arduino quietly pushed a sweeping rewrite of its Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, and the changes mark a clear break from the open-hardware ethos that built the platform.
The new documents introduce an irrevocable, perpetual license over anything users upload, broad surveillance-style monitoring of AI features, a clause preventing users from identifying potential patent infringement, years-long retention of usernames even after account deletion, and the integration of all user data (including minors) into Qualcomm’s global data ecosystem. Military weird things and more.
Remember y’all - you can set up your own custom Arduino compile-build-flasu chain with the bootloader and everything on Linux without having to use their IDE or ever leaving the terminal
Way easier if you start designing circuits directly with microcontrollers and still want to use Arduino libraries on the software side: things like uploading to the microcontroller and fuse programming are just entries in a platformIO project configuration file and it’s way more easy to find were and how to change board libraries to for your own custom “board”.
Also you can run PlatformIO as an extension in Visual Studio Code, which a much better IDE for programming than the Arduino IDE.
Remember y’all - you can set up your own custom Arduino compile-build-flasu chain with the bootloader and everything on Linux without having to use their IDE or ever leaving the terminal
Imma just point people at PlatformIO again. So much better. Arguably easier, too.
Way easier if you start designing circuits directly with microcontrollers and still want to use Arduino libraries on the software side: things like uploading to the microcontroller and fuse programming are just entries in a platformIO project configuration file and it’s way more easy to find were and how to change board libraries to for your own custom “board”.
Also you can run PlatformIO as an extension in Visual Studio Code, which a much better IDE for programming than the Arduino IDE.
I… Gotta disagree with you in the “easier” dept, quite vigorously.