Terms of Service

Acceptance

By accessing or using Syqnal (“the Platform”, “we”, “us”, “our”), you agree to be bound by these Terms of Service (“Terms”). If you do not agree to these Terms, do not access or use the Platform.

You must be at least 13 years old to use Syqnal. If you are between 13 and 18 years of age, you represent that your parent or legal guardian has reviewed and agreed to these Terms on your behalf, as may be required by applicable law in your jurisdiction. Users under 13 are not permitted to register or use the Platform.

Educational institutions deploying Syqnal for classroom or institutional use may be subject to a separate Institution Agreement, which supplements and, in the event of conflict, supersedes these Terms with respect to that institution's use.

Account Registration

To access most features of the Platform, you must create an account. When registering, you agree to provide accurate, current, and complete information. You are responsible for maintaining the accuracy of this information and for updating it promptly if it changes.

You may only maintain one active account per person. Creating multiple accounts to circumvent restrictions, bans, or platform mechanics is prohibited and may result in permanent termination of all associated accounts.

You are solely responsible for maintaining the confidentiality of your login credentials and for all activity that occurs under your account. If you suspect unauthorized access, notify us immediately via the Support form.

Certain roles require institutional verification:

• Teachers and School Counselors must register with a verifiable institutional email address and complete role verification.
• Professors and Admissions Officers must register with a recognized academic institutional email (typically a .edu domain) and complete institutional verification.
• Mentors must submit a company email address and complete our mentor approval process before their profile becomes active.

User Roles & Permissions

Syqnal is a multi-role platform. Each account type carries specific capabilities and responsibilities:

• Student — Create and maintain a verified hardware portfolio, apply to jobs and lab openings, book mentor sessions, participate in challenges.
• Alumni — Retain a verified portfolio after graduation; eligible to apply to become a Mentor subject to approval.
• Teacher — Assign project briefs to class cohorts, issue verification badges on reviewed student projects, export student portfolios.
• School Counselor — Link to student accounts, access counselor dashboards, and initiate portfolio export requests for admissions purposes.
• Admissions Officer — View applicant portfolios and request access to shared portfolio exports via secure share tokens.
• Professor — Post research lab profiles and openings, watch student profiles for research fit, issue verification badges.
• Mentor — Issue project endorsements and Power Vouches (subject to monthly rate limits), conduct mentorship sessions, author insight articles.
• Hiring Manager — Search the verified talent database, manage a talent pipeline, post job listings, set saved search alerts.
• Training Partner — Issue partner badges for completed coursework or certifications, sponsor challenges.
• Admin — Platform operators with access to all administrative functions, including moderation, mentor approvals, and analytics.

Role changes (for example, a Student upgrading to Alumni status) require re-verification through the onboarding flow. Syqnal administrators may revoke, downgrade, or restrict any role at their discretion, including in cases of policy violations or fraudulent role claims.

Portfolio Content & Intellectual Property

You retain full ownership of the content you upload to Syqnal, including project descriptions, schematics, BOM data, videos, build logs, firmware code, and any other materials (“User Content”). By posting User Content to the Platform, you grant Syqnal a non-exclusive, worldwide, royalty-free license to display, reproduce, and distribute your User Content solely for the purpose of operating and improving the Platform and as described in our Privacy Policy.

This license does not grant Syqnal the right to sell your User Content or to grant third parties the right to use your User Content outside of the Platform without your permission.

You represent and warrant that:

• You own or have the necessary licenses, rights, consents, and permissions to publish the content you submit.
• Your content does not infringe the intellectual property, privacy, or publicity rights of any third party.
• Your content does not violate any non-disclosure agreement or other contractual obligation you are subject to.

Ghost Tier and NDA Content: Syqnal offers Ghost Tier privacy levels (PUBLIC / GHOST / REDACTED / PRIVATE) for projects subject to NDA or other confidentiality obligations. It is your sole responsibility to configure the appropriate Ghost Tier for any project containing proprietary or NDA-protected information. Syqnal provides the technical capability to restrict visibility but makes no representations about whether a given configuration satisfies any particular NDA or confidentiality obligation. You assume all responsibility for compliance with any agreements governing your content.

Verification & Endorsements

Verification badges on Syqnal are earned through review by qualified instructors, professors, or mentors — they are not purchased and cannot be obtained through payment. Attempting to obtain verification through fraudulent means, including misrepresenting the work behind a project or fabricating supporting evidence, is a material violation of these Terms and will result in account suspension.

Mentor endorsements, including Power Vouches, are issued at the sole discretion of the endorsing mentor. The VouchIndex score displayed on mentor profiles is computed algorithmically based on endorsement activity, domain expertise, recency, and confirmed placement outcomes. VouchIndex scores are subject to change as the underlying algorithm is updated and as activity patterns change over time. Syqnal does not guarantee any particular VouchIndex score or tier.

Endorsements are a permanent record on the Platform. A student who has received an endorsement may not request its removal from the public record. Mentors retain the right to resolve or annotate their own endorsements.

Attempting to game the VouchIndex — including through coordinated reciprocal endorsements, fake accounts, or other manipulation — is prohibited and may result in permanent suspension of both the giver and recipient accounts involved.

Marketplace

Syqnal operates a peer-to-peer hardware marketplace where users may buy and sell hardware components, PCBs, test equipment, and related items. Syqnal provides the platform infrastructure but is not a party to any transaction between buyers and sellers.

Most Marketplace transactions are completed directly between users through local meetup, self-arranged shipping, cash, bank transfer, or other payment methods chosen by the buyer and seller. Syqnal is not an escrow provider, money transmitter, marketplace merchant of record, shipping carrier, or inspection service.

By listing items on the Marketplace, you represent that:

• You have the legal right to sell the listed item.
• The item description is accurate and not misleading.
• The item is not prohibited under these Terms or applicable law.

The following items are prohibited from the Marketplace:

• Illegal items or items that facilitate illegal activity.
• Counterfeit components or items misrepresented as genuine manufacturer parts.
• Items subject to export controls without appropriate licenses (including certain RF, encryption, and defense-related electronics).
• Dangerous items including uncertified high-voltage equipment.
• Stolen property.

Buyers and sellers are solely responsible for verifying item condition, confirming meetup or shipping arrangements, selecting payment methods, and using appropriate caution to avoid scams or unsafe transactions.

Syqnal may provide tools for tracking transactions, offers, and disputes, and may review reports or moderate abusive behavior at its discretion. However, Syqnal does not guarantee resolution of any marketplace disagreement and is not responsible for losses arising from off-platform payment arrangements, local meetups, shipping issues, fraud, chargebacks, or item-condition disputes.

Payments & Direct Deals

Marketplace participants may choose to complete transactions directly with one another using methods such as cash, bank transfer, or other mutually agreed arrangements. Any such direct payment arrangement is strictly between the buyer and seller, and Syqnal does not process, hold, guarantee, refund, insure, or supervise those funds.

In some cases, Syqnal may offer optional payment processing through Stripe or another third-party provider. If you choose to use such a service, you also agree to that provider's terms, fees, privacy policy, dispute procedures, and regional availability. Optional checkout availability may vary by country, listing type, or transaction context.

Syqnal may charge platform fees on optional processed transactions and on other paid platform services. Current fee schedules are displayed at the point of transaction or in your account settings. Syqnal reserves the right to modify fee schedules with reasonable notice.

Subscription billing is recurring and charged on the billing cycle you select at signup. You may cancel your subscription at any time through your account settings; cancellation takes effect at the end of the current billing period. Refunds are not issued for partial billing periods.

Refunds, reversals, and payment disputes for direct peer-to-peer deals are not handled by Syqnal. If optional third-party checkout is used, any refund or payment dispute remains subject to that provider's rules and does not create liability for Syqnal beyond any non-waivable obligations required by law.

Prohibited Conduct

You agree not to engage in any of the following activities on or in connection with the Platform:

• Impersonation: Misrepresenting your identity, credentials, institutional affiliation, or professional role.
• Spam and unsolicited messaging: Sending bulk unsolicited communications to other users.
• Scraping: Automated extraction of Platform data, user profiles, or content without prior written consent from Syqnal.
• Fake verification: Submitting false evidence, fabricating project documentation, or conspiring with others to obtain fraudulent verification badges or endorsements.
• Harassment and abuse: Targeting, threatening, or harassing other users based on any characteristic.
• Malware: Uploading files containing viruses, trojans, ransomware, or other malicious code.
• Access circumvention: Attempting to bypass authentication, authorization, rate limiting, or any other Platform access control.
• Reselling access: Selling, sublicensing, or otherwise transferring your account or Platform access to third parties.
• Reverse engineering: Decompiling, disassembling, or attempting to extract source code or proprietary algorithms from the Platform.
• Interference: Taking any action that unreasonably burdens or disrupts the Platform infrastructure or other users' experience.

Content Moderation

Syqnal reserves the right to remove, restrict, or archive any User Content that violates these Terms, our Community Guidelines, or that we determine to be harmful, misleading, or otherwise inappropriate — with or without prior notice.

If your content is removed or your account is restricted, you may submit an appeal through the appeals process available in your account settings or via the Account Appeal form. Appeals will be reviewed within a reasonable timeframe, though we cannot guarantee reversal of moderation decisions.

Repeat violations of these Terms or our Community Guidelines may result in temporary or permanent account suspension. Suspended accounts are directed to the Platform's suspended account page and may not create new accounts to circumvent the suspension.

Intellectual Property

The Syqnal Platform, including its software, design, user interface, algorithms (including but not limited to the VouchIndex computation), brand identity, and all content produced by Syqnal, is the exclusive intellectual property of Syqnal Inc. and is protected by copyright, trademark, trade secret, and other applicable laws.

You are granted a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferable, revocable license to access and use the Platform for its intended purpose. This license does not include the right to reproduce, redistribute, sell, publish, or create derivative works from any portion of the Platform or its proprietary content.

You may not scrape, index, mirror, or systematically reproduce the Platform or its content for any purpose including training machine learning models, building competing services, or aggregating talent data.

Disclaimers

THE PLATFORM IS PROVIDED “AS IS” AND “AS AVAILABLE” WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT, OR UNINTERRUPTED, ERROR-FREE OPERATION.

Syqnal does not guarantee any particular hiring, placement, admissions, or funding outcome for any user. Verification badges indicate that a qualified reviewer has reviewed the associated project; they are not professional certifications, accreditations, or endorsements by any licensing body.

VouchIndex scores and mentor tier designations are algorithmic computations and do not constitute professional references or employment recommendations. They are informational signals and should be used as one input among many in any evaluation.

Syqnal makes no representation regarding the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of BOM data, component pricing, or stock information retrieved from third-party sources such as Octopart. Always verify critical component data through official distributor channels before making purchasing decisions.

Limitation of Liability

TO THE MAXIMUM EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, IN NO EVENT SHALL SYQNAL INC., ITS OFFICERS, DIRECTORS, EMPLOYEES, AFFILIATES, OR LICENSORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, CONSEQUENTIAL, OR PUNITIVE DAMAGES, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION LOSS OF PROFITS, DATA, GOODWILL, OR OTHER INTANGIBLE LOSSES, ARISING OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH YOUR ACCESS TO OR USE OF (OR INABILITY TO ACCESS OR USE) THE PLATFORM.

IN NO EVENT SHALL SYQNAL'S TOTAL CUMULATIVE LIABILITY TO YOU FOR ALL CLAIMS ARISING OUT OF OR RELATING TO THESE TERMS OR YOUR USE OF THE PLATFORM EXCEED THE GREATER OF (A) THE TOTAL FEES YOU PAID TO SYQNAL IN THE TWELVE (12) MONTHS IMMEDIATELY PRECEDING THE CLAIM, OR (B) ONE HUNDRED UNITED STATES DOLLARS ($100).

Some jurisdictions do not allow the exclusion or limitation of certain warranties or liabilities, so the above limitations may not apply to you in full.

Governing Law

These Terms and any dispute arising out of or related to them or the Platform shall be governed by the laws of the United States, without regard to conflict of law principles.

Arbitration: Any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms or the Platform that cannot be resolved informally shall be settled by binding arbitration administered by the American Arbitration Association (AAA) under its Consumer Arbitration Rules, except as otherwise provided herein. The arbitration shall be conducted in English.

Class Action Waiver: YOU AND SYQNAL EACH WAIVE THE RIGHT TO A JURY TRIAL AND THE RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE IN A CLASS ACTION OR CLASS ARBITRATION. All disputes must be brought in the parties' individual capacities and not as a plaintiff or class member in any purported class, collective, or representative proceeding.

Notwithstanding the above, either party may seek injunctive or other equitable relief in any court of competent jurisdiction to prevent actual or threatened infringement of intellectual property rights or misappropriation of confidential information.

Changes to These Terms

Syqnal reserves the right to modify these Terms at any time. When we make changes, we will update the “Last updated” date at the top of this page.

For material changes — those that substantially affect your rights or obligations — we will notify you by email to the address associated with your account at least 14 days before the changes take effect, where practicable.

Your continued use of the Platform after the effective date of any updated Terms constitutes your acceptance of the new Terms. If you do not agree to the updated Terms, you must stop using the Platform before the effective date.

Contact

If you have questions about these Terms or need to contact us regarding a legal matter, please reach out to:

For privacy-related inquiries, please see our Privacy Policy. For cookie-related inquiries, please see our Cookie Policy. For dispute resolution, see our Dispute Resolution Policy.