Privacy policy
This policy covers EmbeddedEra LLC, the company behind this site.
Effective September 15, 2026.
What we collect
Nothing, by default. This site sets no cookies of its own and uses no analytics or advertising cookies, which is why you see no cookie banner. If you use a form, we collect what you type into it — name, email, message, the answers for your request type — and any files you attach; it reaches us by email through Web3Forms, and attachments are stored in Cloudflare R2 and deleted after 90 days. The forms are protected by hCaptcha, which may set a cookie or local storage entry for that check. If you subscribe to the engineering notes, we keep the email address you give us and nothing else; it is stored in our own mailing list on our own server, confirmed by a double opt-in, sent through Resend, and every message carries an unsubscribe link. The site is served by Cloudflare, which may log requests (IP address, browser) and set a security cookie, the way most hosts do, and we use Cloudflare's own page analytics — it counts visits without cookies and without identifying you. We also count clicks on the links at the end of each engineering note — which link, on which note, and nothing about you. If you arrived through a tagged link (such as a social post), your browser remembers its tracking tags for up to 90 days, with no cookie, and the quote and contact forms send them to us with your message so we know which link brought you; they hold no personal information.
How we use it
Contact form submissions are used only to reply to you and put together a quote. We don't sell it, rent it, or share it with anyone outside of answering your message.
How long we keep it
If you become a customer we hold your contact details, the design files and firmware you send us, your quotes, orders, invoices, and the test records of what we shipped you. They live in our order system, our mail and our own file store — never in an AI chat transcript. Customer records and orders are kept for the life of the relationship plus 7 years, for tax and warranty reasons. Your design files are kept for the life of the product we built plus 2 years, or until you ask us in writing to delete them, whichever comes first. Quotes that never became an order are kept 2 years. Only the people doing your work see any of it, and nothing leaves the shop without your written request.
The free BOM risk check
The BOM check form collects your first and last name, your work email, the company and role you choose to give, and the parts list you upload. We use them for one thing: to build the risk report and email it to you, which is why the name and email are required. The file is read by our own software on our own server, never shared, and deleted 30 days after you send it; the report and your contact details are kept 2 years like any other quote. Ticking the separate "engineering notes and offers" box is optional and adds you to the same double opt-in list as the subscribe form — you can leave it unticked and still get the report, and every email we send has a one-click unsubscribe. To have the file, the report or your details deleted sooner, email us.
The free assembly quote check
The assembly check reads your Gerber, BOM and placement files in your browser; they are not uploaded for the check and we never see them. To show the full list of findings we ask for your first and last name and your work email, plus the company and role you choose to give, and we store that with the date, your language, the country your connection came from and the three summary counts (ready, fix, confirm) — never the files, part numbers or designators. We use it to follow up on the check and, if you ask for one, to prepare a quote; it is kept 2 years like any other quote. The files are uploaded only if you press "send these files for a quote", and then they are handled like any other quote attachment: stored in Cloudflare R2 and deleted after 90 days. Ticking the separate "engineering notes and offers" box is optional and adds you to the same double opt-in list as the subscribe form; every email has a one-click unsubscribe. To have your details deleted sooner, email us.
Product feedback (Cricket)
The feedback form on the Cricket page collects the rating you pick, the options you tick, anything you type, and an email address only if you choose to give one. We add the date, the language of the page and the Cricket revision (rev008). Not collected: your IP address, country, browser or any cookie. We use it to improve Cricket and, if you gave an email, to reply to you. It is stored in our own Cloudflare R2 storage, copied to our own server and kept for as long as it helps us improve the product. To have yours deleted, email us.
Tool usage statistics
The ESP32 and STM32 browser flashers count how they are used so we can improve them. Each step sends a short event: page opened, connect attempted / succeeded / failed, the chip family and revision, flash size and features the board reported, the file format (app, merged, .dfu, .hex, .bin) and its size bucket, which checks failed or warned, and whether the flash, verify and reset steps succeeded, with a coarse error class and the time it took. Our server adds the country, region, city and timezone of your connection, your browser family and major version, operating system and device type, and whether your browser supports Web Serial or WebUSB. A random identifier stored in this browser (localStorage, no cookie) tells repeat use from new use; it is replaced after a year. Not collected, ever: your IP address, the full browser string, the board's MAC address or serial number, any unique chip id, the firmware file, its name, hash or contents, project names, referring URLs (only the category: one of our notes, a search engine, direct), or anything you type. The rows are kept for 24 months in Cloudflare D1 and never shared. To opt out, untick "Share anonymous usage statistics" at the bottom of the flasher page — that also erases the identifier — and nothing is sent when your browser signals Do Not Track or Global Privacy Control. The Gerber viewer sends only counts (how many files and layers were opened, whether a placement file was among them) and which view or button was used; its files are drawn in your browser, never uploaded unless you choose to send them for a quote, and their names and contents are never recorded.
Your choices
To ask what we have on file, or to have it deleted, email us and we'll take care of it within 30 days, unless a legal hold says otherwise.