Raspberry Pi hires former spy gadget-maker who baked devices into surveillance ops

A former technical surveillance officer at the UK's Eastern Region Special Operations Unit (ERSOU) – a team charged with tackling serious organized crime and terrorism across seven local police forces – has joined the Raspberry Pi Foundation and expressed his professional admiration for the organization's single board computers …

[Anonymous Coward]

It's not gone well for them

They posted about it on Mastodon, and when some users pointed out they aren't comfortable sharing space with the Police - as a general distrust, or in some cases the result of abuse - Raspberry Pi's social media team chose to respond with mockery.

Whether you agree with the objections or not, it's not really the smart route to take, and it's gone about as well as you might expect

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: It's not gone well for them

It seems they are so high in their ivory tower they can not understand the dislike of cops in some places, that cops secretly spying on citizens is even less welcome.

They are being so tone deaf and digging themselves deeper in the mire that when they do finally understand how it looks the apology will have to be more grovelling than when they set their trademark enforcing attack dogs on fan sites.

[Richard 12]

Re: It's not gone well for them

Wow. If you saw that kind of behaviour from a four year old you'd tell them off and give them a time out.

I see that's what the Mastodon network has actually done.

From an official company social media rep, it's gross misconduct - doesn't make any difference whether it's Twitter or Mastodon or MySpace.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: It's not gone well for them

To be honest the RPi foundation's management is a roll call of the great and good from Cambridge and has always had a certain arrogance which goes with it. If there's a revolving door with the Home Office then they've made it to the establishment.

[SonofRojBlake]

Re: It's not gone well for them

Link, please? I'm not a Mastodontist (yet).

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: It's not gone well for them

https://raspberrypi.social/@Raspberry_Pi/109476972427437410

https://twitter.com/Raspberry_Pi/status/1600761840367448064

[Naich]

Re: It's not gone well for them

This is a write up on the affair.

https://eiara.nz/posts/2022/Dec/09/a-case-study-on-raspberry-pis-incident-on-the-fediverse/

[Red Or Zed]

Re: It's not gone well for them

Short but interesting read. Cheers.

[Arthur the cat]

Re: It's not gone well for them

They posted about it on Mastodon, and when some users pointed out they aren't comfortable sharing space with the Police - as a general distrust, or in some cases the result of abuse - Raspberry Pi's social media team chose to respond with mockery.

Mockery wasn't wise as the sort of person who likes publicly complaining about things usually considers themselves to be so important they can't be mocked. However, have seen the Twitter side of the furore, it's notable that those who started screaming "police spy" failed to notice or mention the "against serious organised crime and terrorism" bit and follow ups just dogpiled on without reading the original. So, standard or garden Twitter tempest in a teapot. Film at whatever time you fire up your streaming service.

[Richard 12]

Re: It's not gone well for them

"Serious Organised Crime" has included such infractions as putting things in the wrong rubbish bin.

Sadly the Met and several other police forces are known to be institutionally racist, sexist and to have hired and protected known criminals among their ranks.

Perhaps this former cop is one of the good apples, but emphasising their history is at best, unwise.

So forgive these people for having a certain level of scepticism.

[Richard 12]

Re: It's not gone well for them

And responding to such concerns with mockery and accusations of "dogpiling" is incredibly stupid.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: It's not gone well for them

> So forgive these people for having a certain level of scepticism.

We're not talking about "a certain level of scepticism" but about vile ad hominems, threats and so on.

And there is no real enforcement over there: you're at the mercy of whoever runs "your" instance, who may decide to kick you out or block you from subscribing to other users for any reason or no reason at all.

If you run your own server, whoever runs the other servers may decide to block their users from seeing you and your users also for no reason at all. They may also go and add your server to a GitHub list called “Fediblock” which is a sort of Spamhaus but more abusive.

It's always been bad, but it's got a lot worse now with all the bullies from Twitter coming over.

The whole thing reminds me of Lord of the Flies.

[seldom]

Re: It's not gone well for them

Lord of the Files?

[Kenny Millar]

Whats the point

Whats the point. R-PI are vapour-ware anyway.

[werdsmith]

Re: Whats the point

I have a dozen or so vapour ware in my workshop.

[m4r35n357]

Re: Whats the point

I also have various models hanging around, but I can still empathize with those who do not, and would like one in the foreseeable future.

[werdsmith]

Re: Whats the point

Yes of course we can empathise, but the question was “what’s the point?”

There are millions of pis in the wild already which is point enough.

[iron]

Re: Whats the point

So you're the hoarder that means 11 or so other people have none?

[werdsmith]

Re: Whats the point

So you're the hoarder that means 11 or so other people have none?

Seriously?

I’ve been accumulating them since the very first version came out in 2012, some of them are $5 Pi Zero, some are $5 Pico. Over those 10 years I’ve donated a few. I don’t have a dozen Pi4b 8GB. I have one.

Pico are not vapour ware, they are easily obtained.

So quit with the whinging.

[doublelayer]

Re: Whats the point

Has the news of blocked supply chains not gotten to you yet? They're in high demand and a lot of people have precedence over them when it comes to getting components or manufacturing capacity. I have not purchased a new one in three years due to this shortage, but nevertheless I have a few hanging around. One of them is a 4 (with 2 GB RAM), but all the others are less powerful. I'm not the reason you can't get one, nor really are the foundation that would probably be happy to produce more if it was feasible.

[werdsmith]

Re: Whats the point

“the foundation” are irrelevant, they are not involved in Pi manufacture or distribution.

[Elongated Muskrat]

Re: Whats the point

In my eyeline, at the moment, are a Pi-400 (being used as a NAS server), two Picos (one being used as a debug probe to the other), and a Pi Zero W in a component box on the shelf.

I've got one of the original Pis in a drawer next to me as well, which was used as a host to a number of USB bitcoin mining sticks, back when a bitcoin was about £100, and you could mine them using a few tens of watts, and such things were an interesting curiosity.

I fail to see how any of these are vapour-ware, just because there may be supply-chain issues at the moment, largely due to their popularity. A quick check shows Pimoroni have 8Gb Pi-4s, Picos, and Pico-Hs with or without headers, in stock right now, again, hardly vapour.

[m4r35n357]

Re: Whats the point

£67.50 for the 1GB model - Ouch!

[werdsmith]

Re: Whats the point

That’s in a starter kit with various accessories.

[Anonymous Coward]

Well...

I'm impressed - it's good to see some old-fashioned breadboarding in this day and age...

[Stuart Castle]

Re: Well...

Bearing mind the subject matter, it could be breadboarding literally, IE with a board that looks like a slice.

[Arthur the cat]

Re: Well...

Or if it overheats, toastboarding.

[Anonymous Coward]

you missed half the story

The social media account gave a lot of rude responses and banned a load of people in the replies who even mildly suggested their proud announcement wasn't the best idea

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: you missed half the story

> banned a load of people in the replies who even mildly suggested their proud announcement wasn't the best idea

Links or it didn't happen.

The blocks I've seen concerned people being utter arseholes.

[that one in the corner]

Re: you missed half the story

> The blocks I've seen concerned people being utter arseholes.

Hopefully (as I've given up reading that Mastodon thread) that included the - personage - whose immediate reaction to a normal Brit self-deprecating joke was to start dropping f-words.

[Anonymous Coward]

I doubt a silicon mold would work for chocolate

I think you missed an E, Silicone is used for molding objects with undercuts.

Besides too me that image contains the "chocolate" Pico enclosures that have been molded not the molds themselves.

They also don't look like chocolate, that's normally shiny, a quality a chocolatier strives for.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I doubt a silicon mold would work for chocolate

I suspect that was an attempt to hide the Pico which failed and was never used, hence they've released the image.

[zapgadget]

I was on Mastodon as it ahppened

There was a lot of "stop using Raspberry Pi's" mostly from American people using the hashtag #ACAB

I went and looked it up - "All Cops are B******ds"

Seems a little un-nuanced.

Clearly a case of a specific crowd getting upset, as the ex-policeman was hired, and announced back in June.

But in general, a bit of arseholery on both sides.

[Jason Bloomberg]

Re: I was on Mastodon as it ahppened

"We hired a policeman and it's going really great" wasn't the best announcement they could have made.

I'm a Brit so 'ex-cop and surveillance' instantly brought to mind hiding cameras in plant pots to nab the bad guys. And "hurrah for that; someone's got to do it", and I wasn't much fussed.

But that's a rose-tinted view. He may well be a Good Cop, but there are plenty who aren't, as many have found out, especially certain members of Britain's communities, and those who have ended up on mortuary slabs for no good reason.

And it's even worse in America, so its not surprising some were triggered by the announcement. In truth I can't blame them, even though they are perceiving things from a different perspective than I and other Brits would.

From an American perspective it seems it would be easy to read it as "We have employed a cop who uses our kit to spy on people. Fuck yeah".

The real failing is in how the outraged were responded to. This is probably going to become a text book case of how not to respond to people you have inadvertently triggered. It's not the first time Raspberry Pi has responded in such a manner - Element 14's forum in the early days had a not insignificant number of members who had been banned from the Pi forum because their attitudes weren't appreciated - but this may be the most consequential.

I imagine Liz Upton, Chief Marketing and Communications Officer at Raspberry Pi Limited - "if you see our company producing anything with words, pictures or video in it, my sticky fingers have had some involvement." - is rather busy this morning dealing with what's happening, the shit storm that's been provoked.

[werdsmith]

Re: I was on Mastodon as it ahppened

Rudeness and brusqueness is the de facto mode for quite a few regulars on the official forums.

At least one has pre-emptive rudeness baked into his sig line.

There is a PR problem brewing there and they would do well to get a grip on it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I was on Mastodon as it ahppened

> There is a PR problem brewing there

Honestly, I don't think that being rude to self entitled crowds or those who disrespect your employees is a PR problem at all. It's actually straight out of the O'Leary textbook and Ryanair are still doing impressively well.

In my book, that kind of no nonsense approach is very refreshing and a much needed change.

[poglad]

Re: I was on Mastodon as it ahppened

"In my book, that kind of no nonsense approach is very refreshing and a much needed change."

Thanks for your input, Liz. No need to be anonymous next time.

[Oglethorpe]

Re: I was on Mastodon as it ahppened

Maybe I'm reading this wrong but it sounds more like he was a Q-type figure than an operative.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I was on Mastodon as it ahppened

> But that's a rose-tinted view. He may well be a Good Cop, but there are plenty who aren't, as many have found out, especially certain members of Britain's communities

Personally, I have been harassed, punched, threatened at gunpoint, unlawfully arrested and had trumped up charges pressed against me. I sued (and won) twice.

And I would *never* think: "oh he's a cop, must be a bad person"

On the contrary, most of them try their best, have to put up with a lot of bullshit, and often end up having to enforce policies they don't agree with (but our "representatives" have voted). I respect them whether or not I like them.

And yes, I do realise that in the US they may not be at quite the same professional standard as rightside of the pond, but that's something that those idiots over at Hateodon should realise.

> The real failing is in how the outraged were responded to

They were told to sod off if they don't like it (or words to that effect), which is exactly the way to treat those bigots.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I was on Mastodon as it ahppened

"And I would *never* think: "oh he's a cop, must be a bad person""

That's all wrong: People act like professionals when in work and nice persons when they are *not in work*.

Almost all cops are bad when it work: it's the workplace culture which mandates that. Either you conform or get killed in 'an accident'.

Some of them aren't bad persons when they are not in work, but that's irrelevant when they are in work.

"They were told to sod off if they don't like it (or words to that effect), which is exactly the way to treat those bigots."

Bigots? Believing (based on reality, I'll remind here) police is *not a good guy* is now bigoting? How much Police is paying you, anyway?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I was on Mastodon as it ahppened

> Almost all cops are bad when it work: it's the workplace culture which mandates that.

There is actually an element of that in some forces (it's called "corporate culture"). But saying "all cops are bad" is idiotic. In effect, the same guy who acts an arsehole to one person or in one instance may be a hero on a different day.

I'm ex emergency services and we all had our days.

> Either you conform or get killed in 'an accident'.

In Hollywood, yes.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I was on Mastodon as it ahppened

The culture makes it so, sadly.

My sister was almost killed by a cop who ran a red light at a blind junction and smashed straight into her car.

No siren, no blues. He claimed to have seen her car through a gap in the houses about 100 yards back and "thought he would make it".

Anyone else doing that loses their license, and gets prosecuted for driving without due care and attention.

Overheard comment from an attending officer? "He's going to owe the sergeant a beer for that".

They were seen back on the road the next week.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I was on Mastodon as it ahppened

> The culture makes it so, sadly.

Please don't generalise. We agree that some forces are poorly led and supervised, and that in some countries the police is an instrument of repression at the service of an authoritarian running class and not society.

But it's not like that everywhere.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I was on Mastodon as it ahppened

"But it's not like that everywhere."

Indeed, newsflash for some posters on here, every police officer world wide is a human being, we don't have robcops yet and looking at that movie I would say it was a caution against having them.

People are always triggered when the police are mentioned, but would they want to do that job, and do they imagine they wouldn't ever get accused of wrong doing even if they did "the right thing"?, or called prejudiced, or corrupt without foundation.

Newsflash once people get to their teens they resent being told they can't do something, even if it's stupid, illegal or will get them killed because somehow it's "their right", or their moral code suggests it's not a problem.

Yes some cops are crooked, murderers even, but as a proportion they represent less than the average in society generally.

And as far as IT goes the average major IT company has people who can do far more worrying things in terms of privacy, setting up a PI with a camera to look like a chocolate bar is amateur level to those people.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I was on Mastodon as it ahppened

"From an American perspective it seems it would be easy to read it as "We have employed a cop who uses our kit to spy on people. Fuck yeah"."

Not only an American perspective. Anyone who has Russia (or any other dictatorship, like USA) as border neighbour, see that as a fact: Pi somehow needs a guy who's whole work is spying people.

Now: Why is that? There aren't many answers to that.

Also anything innocent is tossed to trash bin immediately: Professional spy doesn't know anything else than spying. Why would Pi need to spy on people? Which government TLA is now holding the reins?

Their response to that problem is telling a lot about company culture: Obviously spying on people wouldn't bother them at all.

[rg287]

Re: I was on Mastodon as it ahppened

Not only an American perspective. Anyone who has Russia (or any other dictatorship, like USA) as border neighbour, see that as a fact: Pi somehow needs a guy who's whole work is spying people.

No, no. Many people who have Russia (or any other dictatorship) as a neighbour will see this as "huh, interesting background in embedded electronics. He'll do some interesting stuff at RPiF".

Nothing wrong with being a Police officer. Nothing wrong with having done a bit of covert work - someone has to catch the fascists.

Now, if there was some suggestion of malfeasance, or if he was tied up in the "Spy Cops" scandal then that'd be another matter. But there isn't, and he isn't.

The story here is Liz Upton saying some really bizarre stuff on social media.

Also anything innocent is tossed to trash bin immediately: Professional spy doesn't know anything else than spying. Why would Pi need to spy on people? Which government TLA is now holding the reins?

If a TLA was holding the reins, they wouldn't get RPiF to do something so blatant as to hire one a former Police officer. They'd just quietly send the required modifications to the design groups. Or have an agent embedded in the design team. Quite why they'd hire them in a public-facing role like Maker-in-Residence is a bit questionable.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I was on Mastodon as it ahppened

Liz Upton is a waste of space and brings nothing of value to the organisation. Time for her to step aside and let someone better take over.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I was on Mastodon as it ahppened

I do not agree she has no value but is more liability than asset. We will never know her involvement in this PR disaster but her blaming it on posting sausage wraps, claiming it is culture war, organised conspiracy to attack them, is pure BS, reeks of desperately trying to save her own ass. If she was not the bosses wife she may have been marched out the door.

James Spencer called it toxic and many agree. It is the same on their official forum. Moderation there is terrible. It is based on loyalty not offensiveness and inappropriateness. Anyone critical of the company or product, saying product needs some feature or not as perfect as the company wants believed, often get banned. They deny their fuck ups like the USB-C and POE HAT issues are problems. Dozens with power chip failures are blamed for their own misfortune.

It appears the same agree with us or goodbye arrogance has carried to their Mastodon presence. She is responsible for that and it appears she has already prepared her that is racism defense.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I was on Mastodon as it ahppened

Liz Upton was the one posting the "bye bye" and "you're blocked" messages on the Raspberry Pi official Mastodon account. Does she have any qualification for the post she holds beyond being married to Eben? As far as I know, she was a mediocre food blogger before she suddenly became communications director for RPi

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I was on Mastodon as it ahppened

My take is that they simply have had enough of the vocal minority being perpetually offended at anything and everything.

Any response that leads to the good riddance of the perpetually offended gets my vote !

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I was on Mastodon as it ahppened

> Any response that leads to the good riddance of the perpetually offended gets my vote !

And mine! Well put, sir.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I was on Mastodon as it ahppened

"perpetually offended at anything and everything."

So there's nothing wrong at being surveilled, to you. "Don't do crimes and you've nothing to worry about" and other BS like that, right?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: I was on Mastodon as it ahppened

> So there's nothing wrong at being surveilled, to you

Depends on the circumstances. It's illegal or pervasive surveillance that we're worried about, not the need to collect evidence while respecting the law, fundamental rights and the individual's dignity.

And that's a political issue, with the operator having very little say on it. Not everyone wants to be a Snowden and I understand that.

[Arthur the cat]

Re: I was on Mastodon as it ahppened

So there's nothing wrong at being surveilled, to you.

You're another one missing the "against serious organised crime and terrorism" qualification in the original RPi article. The son of a friend is a Home Office employee and has been involved in a lot of surveillance – specifically against criminals trafficking refugees as sex slaves. No-one in their right mind would complain about that. Surveillance can be good or bad depending on circumstances, just like anything else, and going off on one without looking into the details is ridiculously sanctimonious (but sadly fashionable).

[Fat Guy In A Little Coat]

Re: I was on Mastodon as it ahppened

Holy non sequitur, Batman!

[Anonymous Coward]

As someone who has been under surveillance previously due to activism I have been involved with I can say I have removed all my Pi's and cancelled back orders for more. I do not and will not trust the Raspberry Pi foundation again

[Elongated Muskrat]

Covert Policing

I can see both sides of the argument here to be honest (and it should be to R-Pi's chagrin that they have not).

I think it's pretty clear that the police in the UK have some "bad apples", there is a story in the news today about one Met officer being prosecuted for two counts of rape, for example. There was also a case where covert officers had a "romantic relationship" with a "person of interest" in order to monitor them, and this sort of thing is absolutely not OK.

However, just because some officers abuse the system, doesn't mean covert policing doesn't have its place, for example, in tackling organised crime. Its very nature means it can't be done in the open with decent oversight, and sadly, this is going to attract some of the wrong type of people.

Some surveillance is done by the police for political reasons too, especially by the Met, who don't exactly seem like a paragon of trustworthiness right now.

So I think the nuance here, is that we have to have police doing this sort of thing, but that it is open to abuse, and sometimes widely so. It could do with more oversight, but the nature of this sort of work means that the oversight has to be behind closed doors, due to operational security.

At the end of the day, I think people forget that cops are people, and, like all people, can be corrupted, but they can be honest too.

Attacking all policing due to the bad actions of an element is the wrong approach; we do need police because there are criminals out there. We need much better regulation and oversight of the police we have, and possibly a review of the organisational structures that have failed to do that job well so far.

Don't expect that under a Tory government, though, because they are all about deregulation.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Covert Policing

"I think it's pretty clear that the police in the UK have some "bad apples","

There are never *some* "bad apples". It's either all or nothing and as these "bad apples" continue to work as nothing has happened, it's the normal and only some get caught: All (or almost all) are doing it.

That's the nasty reality.

"we do need police because there are criminals out there."

And what we do when police *is* the biggest criminal out there, by far? Deny the reality? Because that's what I see here.

Police is literally an organization which is totally above and outside of *all* laws. Including specifially those meant to regulate what Police can do: They don't give a damn and no-one dares to prosecute them for that and/or punishment isn't even a slap on the wrist, but at the level of 'don't do that again' (which literally means getting caught, not the crime).

[Elongated Muskrat]

Re: Covert Policing

here are never *some* "bad apples". It's either all or nothing

Absolute bollocks.

That's like saying all humans are serial killers because Jeffrey Dahmer.

[keith_w]

Did you stop using cars because the police use cars? Nothing in the article says that the PI foundation was involved in police surveillance, it says that they hired a FORMER police officer who put Pis to use in innovative ways to surveil criminals, surely in order to use his expertise with the devices.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's more the Pi foundation's mocking reaction.

You don't not like the moon landings because of von Braun, but NASA didn't put out press releases laughing about how they couldn't have done it without all those Jews.

[Anonymous Coward]

" Nothing in the article says that the PI foundation was involved in police surveillance, it says that they hired a FORMER police officer who put Pis to use in innovative ways to surveil criminals,"

"PI foundation was involved in police surveillance," You believe they'd admit that? WTF? Spies *never* admit spying.

Not "criminals", but anyone and anywhere. Anyone spied on is a criminal *after* court decides so, but Police doesn't care. You can bet they didn't ever ask any court permission for said spying. Which is a crime, of course. Crimes are totally OK when Police does them, right?

Also: There's no such thing as former spy: A spy is a spy until the grave. You don't wonder why Pi would hire a professional criminal whose specialty is spying on people?

You should.

Their typically arrogant response shows they're moving into surveillance business. No doubt government TLA pays well for that, there are so many Pis in use, globally. Very lucrative market for 'additional undocumented functionality', as these spies say.

[Anonymous Coward]

"Their typically arrogant response shows they're moving into surveillance business. No doubt government TLA pays well for that, there are so many Pis in use, globally. Very lucrative market for 'additional undocumented functionality', as these spies say."

So, if you were moving into the surveillance business, would you blog about it?

The Pi is an SBC, anyone can buy one and use it for any purpose, it's just a computer with no 'dedicated' surveillance features, unless you count a camera. Like the one on your phone. Presumably some people buy then for nefarious purposes, but why would people think that is the Foundation moving in to the surveillance business when they plastered it all over their media.

[Anonymous Coward]

> As someone who has been under surveillance previously due to activism

That's two of us…

> I have removed all my Pi's and cancelled back orders for more.

…and one of you, but thank you for freeing up stock. :)

Less hate and more being useful goes a long way.

[that one in the corner]

> I have removed all my Pi's

Ok, this is one thing that always confuses me. You see it as a response to any company/group X that has misbehaved in someone eyes:

You don't like what X has *just* done - fine - so you decide to cancel unfulfilled orders and not give the "New Bad X" any more funding - again, fine, your choice; presumably hoping that enough other people will follow your lead, X will feel the pinch and revert.

But, what is the point of removing all your *existing* paid-for items? Doing that isn't going to hurt X, they have had your money. If the items were actually of *use* to you (which is implied by the existence of unfulfilled orders) then the only person hurt by that - is yourself.

Really doesn't matter who/what X is - I simply don't understand why getting rid of something that is functional is seen as a valid response.

Anyone care to enlighten me?

[Anonymous Coward]

> Ok, this is one thing that always confuses me

My guess is that this is like "I'm cancelling my subscription!" which everyone exclaimed in those angry letters to the editor but none ever did.

Alternatively, I could imagine someone feeling particularly strongly about a brand wanting to erase it from his life. Lots of people who had fought in WWII could not stand the sight of anything German, for instance.

Not justifying the other poster in any way, just trying to answer your generic question.

[Anonymous Coward]

You don't need to make up excuses for these people, they are more than capable of ranting nonsense for themselves.

[Anonymous Coward]

Not OP, but

> But, what is the point of removing all your *existing* paid-for items?

If I'd decided I was no longer going to buy RPI's, I'd also be thinking about removing my existing ones.

Not because it'll hurt the company, but because - at some point - those fuckers are going to break and need replacing.

I'd rather engineer them back out and replace them at my luxury, than try and cobble something together in a hurry after a hardware failure.

Fairly specific to this example though,it doesn't really extend to people burning their Nike's etc

[Anonymous Coward]

I hope you've also stopped using PCs. Designed by a company that helped the Nazis tabulate the Jewish population.

[werdsmith]

The most important thing to remember is that the person in question is not a policeman.

To my shame I used to work for a company involved in direct marketing. I am not a spammer.

[monty75]

I used to build websites for a fitness company. I am not, in any sense of the word, fit.

[Andy The Hat]

Didn't answer the obvious ...

What does a Chocolate Pi taste like?

[entfe001]

Re: Didn't answer the obvious ...

Ouch! I bit a bit!

[Spoobistle]

Re: Didn't answer the obvious ...

Oh! you should have blown on it to cool it down!

[Timbo]

Re: Didn't answer the obvious ...

...and surely lots of chocolate is supplied in aluminium foil?

So therefore, hiding a Pico inside something that is supposed to resemble chocolate and hence could be covered in foil, means such a device is useless transmitting via wifi until it is unwrapped...and then what could it measure, if the device is still covered in real or even imitation chocolate?

[Marty McFly]

No supply for us geeks...

I used to have a lot of fun tinkering with RPi's. I have a few projects I want to try, but the on-going supply issue has prevented me from procuring a new Pi to play with. The foundation seems to prioritize any production they get to companies that use Pi's in their products, and no boards are left for hobbyists.

It is always sad when organizations turn their backs to the customers that got them started.

[Arthur the cat]

Re: No supply for us geeks...

The foundation seems to prioritize any production they get to companies that use Pi's in their products, and no boards are left for hobbyists.

They decided to do that because hobbies are fun but don't (usually) pay the bills whereas if they cut off supplies to the companies there's a risk the companies would go bust and people would be out of a job. I'd rather use an Arduino or Odroid or mbed or random AliExpress board instead of a Pi than indirectly chuck someone on the dole.

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: No supply for us geeks...

Or, more likely than companies going bust, they would rather supply those companies who might choose a different solution and never come back as a paying customer. Those companies pay the bills so the rest of us, in the good times, can have our nice new shiny at decent prices. Lose too many big customers such that demand falls too far and the economies of scale start to fail.

[iron]

I'd be impressed if they hired someone who could sort out their complete lack of a supply chain and get some Pi 4s in stock at ANY outlet.

Hiring a member of the UK's facist police state? Not so much.

[Anonymous Coward]

> Hiring a member of the UK's facist police state?

And I'd be impressed if you could spell "fascist" correctly.

[that one in the corner]

Facist: some one who is using fashion - a facist movement that propagates either one has the face or shame.

[rg287]

Hiring a member of the UK's facist police state? Not so much.

Interesting juxtaposition given that just this week, German Police busted open a far-right group planning a coup-d'etat. Do we think that operation was planned and executed with no covert surveillance? Is it a sign of a fascist police state that Police run covert surveillance? (Most people would say no, subject to proper legal frameworks and warrants).

The idea that British Police officers are somehow automatically fascists is worthy of a [citation needed] tag.

Does UK Policing have issues? Of course (mostly - though not uniquely - focussed on the Met). Does that mean we need to import US-based culture wars? Goodness no. The whole "Kill the Bill" routine in 2020 was utterly pathetic. Is there systemic racism and discrimination in the UK? Yes, in places. Are UK Police comparable to US cops? No, not remotely.

Alas, the lack of nuance shown all round is very sad (though perhaps not surprising).

* British company employs a former British TSO. This is not a big deal. It is telling that the buzzfeed article has to cite three Americans to whinge about this, mostly based on the (understandably, but irrelevant) fractious relationship between the US citizenry and the mishmash of Police Departments, Sheriffs Departments, State agencies and Federal bureaus, including a not small amount of corruption.

Quotes like this are telling:

“In my eyes, this behavior is completely unethical and the work Toby has done for 15 years is indefensible

I wonder if that chap (Matt Lewis, Denver) considers the covert work done by the Germans last week to also be "indefensible"? Maybe he's a Reichsbürger and is upset his mates have been locked up.

The actual story here is RPi's response to the criticism, and their ham-fisted handling of it - namely that they didn't recognise the underlying reasons why a load of (mostly Americans) were piling in with "But Police are fascists". This shouldn't be allowed to affect hiring decisions by a British company in Britain, but the failure to step back and ask "what's going on here" is very, very careless.

Under all circumstances though, the death threats received by RPi staff and the chap in question are all entirely unacceptable and unwarranted. I mean FFS. Sending people death threats because of a hiring decision (6 months by the way, he's been there since May writing technical documentation - but only just moved into the "Maker-in-Residence" role).

[Missing Semicolon]

Different standards

It's funny that. In many cases, death threats by Social Media are investigated seriously. Because, unless I'm mistaken, they are crimes.

Yet not here.

[Anonymous Coward]

Quote: death threats received by RPi staff and the chap in question are all entirely unacceptable and unwarranted.

Is there any evidence that such death threats arrived

[monty75]

Pretty sure all the police forces use standard office PCs, some of which will be used for surveillance-related tasks. Equally a lot of companies employ ex-police. Neither of these seem like reasons to boycott a company.

The social media posts are a bit weird for a corporate account but that’s all they are. I really don’t get the fuss.

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Lemon Battery

Powered Pico?

[Anonymous Coward]

And now this shit

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/chrisstokelwalker/raspberry-pi-hired-ex-cop-mastodon-controversy

quote:

I think what we’re looking at is a dogpile that’s being organized somewhere,” a Raspberry Pi cofounder told BuzzFeed News."

Liz Upton, Raspberry Pi’s cofounder and chief marketing officer, told BuzzFeed she believes that much of the issue stems not from the hiring of the former police officer who admitted to using Raspberry Pis for covert surveillance, but instead from a picture the account posted to Mastodon a day earlier showing pigs in blankets. “We didn’t put a content warning on it, because we don’t put a content warning on meat,” Upton said. “There were quite a few people who tried to start dogpiling on that.”

She also claimed that part of the vitriolic response could be because Raspberry Pi is struggling with supply chain difficulties at present, and people “were already cross.”

“I think what we’re looking at is a dogpile that’s being organized somewhere,” Upton said. “There’s obviously a Discord or a forum somewhere.” She did not provide evidence to support that claim.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: And now this shit

Good old commie Liz and her cronies love making stuff up... they think something might have happened or they might have heard about it, but didn't see any actual evidence of it! These people are truly off their rockers!

NURRRRRRRRSEEE!!!!!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Hilarious comedy!

What hilarious fun this has been to watch, those snowflake red or blue haired leftie commie weirdos getting utterly triggered by the mere mention of an ex-copper working in Raspberry Pi towers! Made me laugh loads today. Mind you, it's strange because Raspberry Pi towers seems to be full of leftie loons anyway, they seem to be jumping on the corporate virtue signalling bandwagon these days. How did they manage to bring themselves to recruit someone who doesn't have weirdo tendencies and features! Didn't they get triggered by Elon Musk buying twitter? It's like grab a bag of popcorn time for some cheap entertainment watching these loons fighting each other. Wow!

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Hilarious comedy!

Pretty sad that the grown up conversation is on Reddit r/raspberry_pi instead of here.

[Anonymous Coward]

The thread on the Raspberry Pi forum discussing this incident has been locked without any explanation and without any contributed comment from Raspberry Pi themselves:

https://forums.raspberrypi.com/viewtopic.php?t=343946

[Anonymous Coward]

Posts then got deleted from that thread. Moderators once posted "this forum is NOT a democracy. It's a benign dictatorship." How benign: you decide.