Literally the entire electronics industry. I’m under at least 12 NDAs
This fuck this and nxp 
Yeah, but what is the purpose? Isn’t it in the manufacturers iterest to have this information freely acessible?
I for one would not be the least bit sad if an Aaron Schwartz type leaked them all over the internet
For one, if the manufacturer requires me to sign an NDA for a datasheet, I would just go with the competitor (as a hobbyist or small business of course; I am sure you don’t really have a say in the matter and don’t fault you for it). NDAs make my blood boil.
1 Like
What competitor dose NXP have re the NTAG DNA for example
1 Like
I realised that when I re-read my own post. hence why I ran to make sure I made it clear that was not my intent!
I never even considered that as an option.
I was just agreeing with @Will that NXP docs tend to be rubbish for the hobbyist dev.
The point that drives my frustration is exactly this:
That is what I find is terrible for all of us, because forces this whole thing we do to be wrapped in mystique.
But I do appreciate it is way beyond your control.
So, again, I wasn’t criticising anyone here for “not taking action”. Just lashing at the very principle behind how NXP conducts its business. 
Also…
Completely agree here: NDAs are a sign of weakness.
Be it an individual or a company, you should be able to stand tall by your own merit. Not because everyone else is frail. NDAs cripple the advancement of technology just to ensure a company can remain high for longer without having to keep innovating.
Competition drives advancement better than anything else!
Yeah, that’s why I mentioned the survivourship bias, you are only seeing what people can talk about.
Also no professionals from a company are going to post about their development efforts publicly 
Sorry. let me rephrase.
I did have seen that as an “option”. But never considered he (or anyone else) sharing it, since it would violate his NDA.
It was more of an “it’s obvious he wouldn’t do that, so I wouldn’t ever ask” than an “I never even thought that could’ve happened”, as @Satur9 cleverly pointed out: 
This comes from me having a cabinet chock full of NDAs here. So if anything I should be closer to Stockholm Syndrome than Survivorship Bias!
Seriously, I live in this insane reality where I fail to gain security clearances which I already have, because it’s explicitly stated I cannot tell the (very same) issuing authority that I already have that clearance. (it is as stupid as it sounds). Not to mention NDAs I collect as a tech consultant.
Going back to the first topic you commented this on:
- I don’t deny that there are private successes. in fact I see them everyday.
- I also don’t deny these private successes are huge in many cases.
- What I focused on is that there aren’t significant numbers of those.
Significant in the sense of helping this technology gain adoption by masses, helping it become demystified!
As an example, I bring the entertainment industry.
Before Youtube, it was only in the hands of the giants. Where I grew up you had national soap operas or hollywood blockbusters. That’s all. No access to anything else, and anything else that you could manage to find was heinous.
Youtube came: made it easy for people to understand creation of entertainment. -> Entertainment industry got demystified!
This let to countless other platforms and the whole entertainment industry evolved. a lot!
Now you can find shows from around the world even in forsaken corners on my home country, and this leads to a lot of cultural exchange and whatnots.
Interestingly enough; the 424 details appears to be “Company public”. I can find the documentation on the internet, I can find the examples on Github. See here for the AN: https://www.nxp.com/docs/en/application-note/AN12196.pdf
https://github.com/topics/ntag424
And more on Stack Exchange, etc.
Same goes for NTAG5 products, actually. All the doco is online.
But yes; we’re under a boatload of NDA’s for most stuff.
Also, NXP did this because of Crypto1 being broken.
Edit: just confirmed, my 424DNA sheet is Company Public. 413 and older is under NDA.
Ceypto1 got broken because it was designed improperly. And security through obscurity isn’t the right way to go. NDAs always make me think that something is fishy. What exactly does ‘company public’ mean? 
1 Like
Exactly my point.
NDAs will not prevent another hack. All they do is to make it harder for people to talk about how flawed was the design which led to the hack being possible. (which is the first step towards the development of a more secure chip)
I never said I agreed with the practice. Just that it got scaled up significantly after Darkside and the other exploits became public.
1 Like
Means there’s no NDA attached.
I don’t think either of us was lashing at you, @fraggersparks. 
And at least for me, I didn’t thought you were “defending” it. Your posts always came out as “explaining”. 
(hence why, despite my inflammatory speech, I felt the need to specifically state I wasn’t aiming any of my comments at you)