here’s the outline of what changed, pulled directly from their new docs:
• fully irrevocable license to all user content
arduino now owns perpetual, world-wide rights to modify, translate, redistribute, and commercially exploit anything users upload. including code, libraries, photos, designs, and comments.
non-revocable, non-expiring.
• surveillance-grade ai monitoring baked into the platform
their new “ai policy” explicitly allows arduino/qualcomm to monitor model usage, compute time, storage, logs, and user behavior for “compliance”, “government requests”, and undefined “protection.”
• a patent-infringement shield clause
users are banned from using the platform to identify or support patent claims against arduino or its affiliates. this is the opposite of open-source accountability.
• deletion that isn’t deletion
deleted content stays accessible internally, and possibly public, if arduino decides it’s needed for “investigation,” “legal compliance,” or if others interacted with it.
• minors’ data deeply fused into the qualcomm ecosystem
accounts for users under 18 feed directly into qualcomm’s global data infrastructure. includes identifiers, behavior, project data, classroom data, and device telemetry.
• explicit admission of “sale” and “sharing” of identifiers, geolocation, analytics
under u.s. disclosures, arduino acknowledges sharing browser data, ip addresses, location, and behavioral inferences with advertising and analytics partners.
• five-year public retention of usernames after account deletion
forum and project-hub posts stay public with username attached for years before being de-identified.
• military and government carve-outs
arduino prohibits most military use of its AI tools… except for DARPA, which gets a special exemption.
• termination triggers for trivialities
sharing login credentials or choosing a username they dislike can get your account wiped.
• cross-border data extraction to qualcomm subsidiaries
all user data is shared globally across the qualcomm group, processed in multiple jurisdictions.
the part that breaks any remaining illusion of “open source community platform” is section 8.2, which forbids translating, decompiling, or
reverse-engineering the platform unless arduino explicitly allows it. that was never the arduino ethos.
arduino didn’t simply update its terms today. it reflashed itself into a telemetry appliance with proprietary firmware and a smiley sticker.
> fully irrevocable license to all user content arduino now owns perpetual, world-wide rights to modify, translate, redistribute, and commercially exploit anything users upload. including code, libraries, photos, designs, and comments. non-revocable, non-expiring.
I don't understand how that works. So I have an Arduino library that has various Copyright messages including from Arduino and me. The licenses are a mix of MIT, GPL and ad-hoc license messages. How is Arduino able to change rights by updating terms of service? As to my understanding they don't even have the exclusive rights to begin with?
> forbids translating, decompiling, or reverse-engineering the platform unless arduino explicitly allows it. that was never the arduino ethos.
What does that mean for activities, that are already ongoing? And how can it be "reverse-engineering", when the board layouts are public and "decompiling", when the code is open-source?
How is the "Platform" defined? Every repository, that has Arduino in the name? Does Arduino assert ownership about random peoples Github Accounts? Because that is where the official libraries are hosted.
I work closely with an educational institution that uses Arduino intensively - I'm trying to sound the alarm, and your points are incredibly useful; would you happen to have reference to the specific paragraphs/sentences in the agreement that each of your points reference?
People are basically telling me I'm too paranoid about this.
• fully irrevocable license to all user content arduino now owns perpetual, world-wide rights to modify, translate, redistribute, and commercially exploit anything users upload. including code, libraries, photos, designs, and comments. non-revocable, non-expiring.
• surveillance-grade ai monitoring baked into the platform their new “ai policy” explicitly allows arduino/qualcomm to monitor model usage, compute time, storage, logs, and user behavior for “compliance”, “government requests”, and undefined “protection.”
• a patent-infringement shield clause users are banned from using the platform to identify or support patent claims against arduino or its affiliates. this is the opposite of open-source accountability.
• deletion that isn’t deletion deleted content stays accessible internally, and possibly public, if arduino decides it’s needed for “investigation,” “legal compliance,” or if others interacted with it.
• minors’ data deeply fused into the qualcomm ecosystem accounts for users under 18 feed directly into qualcomm’s global data infrastructure. includes identifiers, behavior, project data, classroom data, and device telemetry.
• explicit admission of “sale” and “sharing” of identifiers, geolocation, analytics under u.s. disclosures, arduino acknowledges sharing browser data, ip addresses, location, and behavioral inferences with advertising and analytics partners.
• five-year public retention of usernames after account deletion forum and project-hub posts stay public with username attached for years before being de-identified.
• military and government carve-outs arduino prohibits most military use of its AI tools… except for DARPA, which gets a special exemption.
• termination triggers for trivialities sharing login credentials or choosing a username they dislike can get your account wiped.
• cross-border data extraction to qualcomm subsidiaries all user data is shared globally across the qualcomm group, processed in multiple jurisdictions.
the part that breaks any remaining illusion of “open source community platform” is section 8.2, which forbids translating, decompiling, or reverse-engineering the platform unless arduino explicitly allows it. that was never the arduino ethos.
arduino didn’t simply update its terms today. it reflashed itself into a telemetry appliance with proprietary firmware and a smiley sticker.
the two documents: https://www.arduino.cc/en/privacy-policy/ https://www.arduino.cc/en/terms-conditions/