Open Source the Limitless Pendant Firmware: A Call to Do Right By Your Community

To:
Dan Siroker (Co-Founder & CEO, Limitless AI),
https://www.linkedin.com/in/dsiroker/

Brett Bejcek (Co-Founder, Limitless AI)
https://www.linkedin.com/in/brettbejcek/

and Meta Platforms, Inc.
https://www.linkedin.com/company/meta/

We, the undersigned, call upon the founders of Limitless AI and Meta to release the Limitless Pendant firmware under an open-source license, allowing users to continue using the hardware they purchased with alternative applications of their choosing.

On December 5, 2025, Limitless AI announced its acquisition by Meta. The following changes took effect immediately or will take effect shortly:

• Service terminated in the European Union, United Kingdom, Brazil, China, Israel, South Korea, and Turkey — users in these regions have until December 19, 2025 to export their data before permanent account deletion
• The Rewind desktop application will be permanently disabled on December 19, 2025
• Sales of the Pendant have ceased permanently
• All remaining users must accept updated Privacy Policy and Terms of Service to continue using the service
• Pendant support is only guaranteed for "at least another year" — after which the device faces planned obsolescence

Limitless built its reputation on privacy. The company marketed:

• "Privacy-first" architecture with local storage options
• HIPAA compliance for medical-grade data protection
• Hardware Security Module (HSM) encryption
• "Consent Mode" for user-controlled data recording
• End-to-end encryption capabilities via the Lockdown feature
• A commitment to never sell user data to third parties

Users chose Limitless specifically because of these commitments. Many purchased the Pendant for sensitive use cases: medical appointments, therapy sessions, confidential business meetings, and personal reflection — precisely because Limitless promised their conversations would remain private and under their control.

These users now face a choice: accept new terms under Meta's ownership, or lose access to a device they paid for and trusted with their most personal moments.

Acquisition deals of this scale typically require months of due diligence and negotiation. Yet Limitless actively promoted and sold Pendants through late November 2025, offering bundle deals at $299.

Approximately one week later, on December 5, the acquisition was announced.

This timing raises important questions: Were customers purchasing devices while negotiations were already underway? Did buyers make purchasing decisions based on privacy commitments that may have been about to change?

Users who purchased devices during this period now own hardware that:

• Will become obsolete within approximately one year
• Requires accepting new terms to continue functioning
• Is immediately non-functional for those in affected regions

We believe these questions deserve answers, and we believe the community deserves a gesture of goodwill.

Users in the EU, UK, Brazil, Israel, South Korea, Turkey, and China have been immediately cut off from the service. These regions have strong data protection laws — GDPR in Europe, LGPD in Brazil, PIPA in South Korea, and others.

The immediate withdrawal from these jurisdictions, rather than adapting to comply with local regulations, has left users in these regions with hardware that no longer functions as intended. Whether this decision was driven by regulatory complexity, business priorities, or other factors, the outcome is the same: users in these regions paid for a product and service that has been withdrawn from them.

These users did nothing wrong. They simply live in countries that prioritize data protection. They now possess devices that are effectively electronic waste — not because the hardware failed, but because a business decision rendered their purchase worthless overnight.

The Limitless Pendant is a well-engineered piece of hardware. It contains a microphone, Bluetooth connectivity, a battery rated for up to 100 hours, and the physical components necessary to function as a recording and transcription device for years to come.

None of this hardware is broken. None of it needs to be thrown away.

Yet without accessible firmware, thousands of Pendants worldwide are destined to become electronic waste — joining the estimated 50+ million metric tons of e-waste generated globally each year. This is hardware that was manufactured, shipped, purchased, and used — only to be discarded not because it stopped working, but because a software decision made it non-functional.

This is preventable. Open-sourcing the firmware would give these devices a second life. It would allow users, hobbyists, and developers to repurpose perfectly functional hardware rather than sending it to landfills.

In an era of growing environmental awareness, turning working technology into garbage is a choice — and it's the wrong one.

We recognize that acquisitions are a normal part of the technology industry. We understand that business realities sometimes require difficult decisions. We are not asking Limitless or Meta to reverse the acquisition or restore service indefinitely.

We are asking for one meaningful gesture: release the Limitless Pendant firmware under an open-source license.

This single act would:

1. Empower users to run alternative applications on hardware they legally own
2. Enable independent developers to create privacy-respecting alternatives
3. Give abandoned users a path forward — particularly those in regions where service has been terminated
4. Prevent thousands of devices from becoming e-waste — extending the useful life of functional hardware
5. Preserve the technology for the community, independent of any single company's business trajectory
6. Honor the original vision of Limitless: freeing the human mind from its biological limitations

The Pendant hardware line is being discontinued. There are no future sales to protect. Meta has stated it will integrate Limitless technology into its own devices rather than continue the Pendant product line. The firmware, as a standalone asset, serves no competitive purpose.

Open-sourcing the firmware costs nothing but yields immense goodwill. It transforms an ending into a beginning. It gives the community agency over hardware they paid for and trusted. And it prevents perfectly good technology from being discarded unnecessarily.

There is precedent for this. When companies discontinue hardware products, releasing firmware or specifications to the community is increasingly recognized as the ethical and environmentally responsible path forward. It respects the investment users made — not just financial, but the investment of trust — and it respects the resources that went into manufacturing these devices in the first place.

You built Limitless on a vision of human empowerment. Your mission statement speaks of "freeing the human mind from its biological limitations." You attracted users who believed in that vision — users who chose your product over competitors specifically because you promised to respect their privacy and autonomy.

Many of those users now feel that trust has been transferred to a company they did not choose.

You have an opportunity to demonstrate that your commitment to users was genuine — that it wasn't just marketing, but principle.

Open-sourcing the Pendant firmware would:

• Preserve your reputation as founders who, even in an exit, did right by their community
• Validate the trust that early adopters placed in you
• Prevent unnecessary electronic waste by giving functional hardware a continued purpose
• Set an example for the industry on how to handle hardware discontinuation ethically and sustainably
• Create lasting goodwill that will follow you throughout your careers

You spent years building trust with a community that believed in your vision. This is your chance to honor that relationship one final time.

Doing the right thing here costs you nothing but a decision. It gives your users everything — and it keeps functional technology out of landfills.

This is not about anger or blame. This is an invitation to end this chapter of Limitless with integrity — to show that the privacy-first values you championed were real, not just a positioning strategy. It is also an invitation to demonstrate environmental responsibility at a moment when it matters.

We are asking you to do the right thing. We believe you will.

Specifically, we request:

1. Release the Limitless Pendant firmware under an open-source license (such as MIT, Apache 2.0, or GPL) that permits modification and redistribution
2. Provide documentation sufficient for developers to build alternative applications for the Pendant hardware
3. Consider releasing companion tools such as transcription pipelines or local processing code that would enable offline functionality

We understand that some components may involve third-party licenses that complicate full release. We ask for good-faith effort to release what can be released, and transparency about what cannot.

We are:

• Early adopters who believed in the Limitless vision
• Users who purchased Pendants trusting the privacy commitments made to us
• Residents of regions where service has been terminated, left with non-functional hardware
• Privacy advocates concerned about the precedent this sets
• Technologists who believe users should have agency over devices they own
• Environmentally conscious individuals who oppose unnecessary e-waste
• Members of the broader community who want to see the right thing done

By signing, you are asking Limitless and Meta to open-source the Pendant firmware so that users can continue to benefit from hardware they purchased in good faith — and so that functional technology does not needlessly become waste.

This is not a demand born of hostility. It is a request made in hope — hope that the founders of Limitless will choose to honor the community that supported them, and to act responsibly toward both users and the environment.

Our data. Our devices. Our trust. Our planet. Please honor them.

This petition represents the opinions and concerns of the undersigned. We encourage Limitless and Meta to provide transparency about the transition process and to consider this request in the spirit in which it is offered: as an opportunity to do right by the community and the environment.This petition will be delivered to Dan Siroker, Brett Bejcek, Meta's Reality Labs division, and relevant technology press.

• TechCrunch: Meta acquires AI device startup Limitless (December 5, 2025)
• 9to5Mac: Rewind Mac app shutting down following Meta acquisition (December 5, 2025)
• WinBuzzer: Meta Acquires AI Wearables Startup Limitless (December 5, 2025)
• Limitless Privacy Page
• Limitless Help Center: Privacy with Limitless
• Limitless Terms of Service (Updated December 5, 2025)