Bonum Certa Men Certa

How To Deal With Your Raspberry Spy -- Part I: Acknowledgements

By Gavin L. Rebeiro

Zebras

Summary: March 2, 2021 blog post series from a guest author; for some background, see blog posts from Microsoft in the official blog of Raspberry Pi [1, 2] and our response to these

Cover



The artwork on the cover of this work is used under explicit written permission by the artist. Any copying, distributing or reproduction of this artwork without the same explicit permission is considered theft and/or misuse of intellectual and creative property.

● Artist: Cay ● Artist Contact Details: catthecay@gmail.com ● Artist Portfolio: https://thecayart.wixsite.com/artwork/contact

These covers are here to spice things up a bit. Want to have your artwork showcased? Just send an email over to contact@e2eops.io and let us know!

For encrypted communications, you can use the OpenPGP Key provided in chapter 6.

Copyright



● Author: Gavin L. Rebeiro ● Copyright Holder: Gavin L. Rebeiro, 2021 ● Contact Author: glr@e2eops.io ● Publisher: E2EOPS PRESS LIMITED ● Contact Publisher: contact@e2eops.io

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

For encrypted communications, you can use the OpenPGP Key provided in chapter 6.

Chapter 1



Acknowledgements

Techrights techrights.org (TR) deserves credit for coverage of the Raspberry Spy Foundation’s underhand tactics; a heart-felt thanks to everyone who participated and notified TR about the Raspberry Spy espionage. TR has been robbed of credit they deserved in the early days of news coverage. The following links go over some of the news coverage from TR:

● Raspberry Pi (at Least Raspbian GNU/Linux and/or Raspberry Pi Foundation) Appears to Have Been Infiltrated by Microsoft and There Are Severe Consequences

● Raspberry Pi Foundation is Trying to Cover Up Its Deal With the Devil by Censoring Its Own Customers

● Raspberry Pi Foundation Owes Customers an Apology

● Holding the Raspberry Pi Foundation Accountable by Explaining What Happened (and Providing Evidence)

● Raspberry Pied in the Face — Part I: What is Known About the Relationship Between Microsoft and the Raspberry Pi Foundation

● Raspberry Pi OS Adds Microsoft Repository Without User Permission

● Raspberry Pied in the Face — Part II: Raspberry Pi Foundation in Violation of GNU/Linux Rules (Because of Microsoft)

● Raspberry Pied in the Face — Part III: Eben Upton’s Response and Its Significance

● Raspberry Pied in the Face — Part IV: Poor Crisis Management by the Raspberry Pi Foundation

● Raspberry Pied in the Face — Part V: Raspberry Bye? The Lost of Trust is Pervasive and the (Un)Official Response Unhelpful

● What Microsoft Did to the Raspberry Pi Foundation is Part of a Broader Anti-GNU/Linux Strategy

● More Than a Fortnight After Installing Microsoft Surveillance and Keys on Millions of Computers Without Users’ Consent the Spin Comes From the Raspberry Pi Company (via Microsoft)

● Raspberry Pi Reaffirms Its Commitment to Microsoft (as Trojan Horse Inside Classrooms) and Abandons the Free Software Community

● Microsoft Inside — Part II: Microsoft Has Plans for the Raspberry Pi or Linux SBCs in General (and It Hides Its Role in That)

I tried to keep things in chronological order, but you should just check out the TR site archives from Febuary 2021 onwards for coverage on this treachery from the Raspberry Spy Foundation.

A big thanks also to the founder of Everything Wrong With Free Software (EWWFS); EWWFS did a great piece on the Raspberry Spy that is worth reading:

● maybe-dont-buy-a-raspberry-spy

I originally got the inspiration for this paper from the creator of EWWFS. Much support and encouragement was provided during the research and development of this paper from EWWFS.

I saw the freedom-crushing propaganda machine in full action after the story first broke. Every single forum post that was censored, every single person in chat rooms that had been blocked or called a “basher”, and every single person who boycotts or called for a boycott of the Raspberry Spy, all give us hope that the fight for freedom is still alive.

It is my hope this document helps you advance your freedoms, learn a few new things, and have fun in the process. Let’s get hacking!

Recent Techrights' Posts

Rust Propaganda Now Amplified by Slopfarms Powered by Microsoft LLMs, Encouraging the Outsourcing of GNU/Linux Distros to Microsoft/GitHub/NSA (and a Shift Away From GPL/Copyleft)
Moving to Microsoft GitHub and adopting unfinished, untested code for highly critical bits
IBM is Rotting With "Zero Internal Jobs" and Many PIPs (Performance Improvement Plans) on the Way, Typically a Fast Track Towards Layoffs Without Severance
At risk of giving air(time) to tribal sentiments, the internal joke at IBM is that to IBM "AI" stands for "All Indian"
The Gerstnerisation of Microsoft: Seventh Wave of Microsoft Layoffs (Over 20,000 to be Cut) Allegedly Going to Start Shortly, Probably Start of Next Week, Microsoft Spreads Chaff and Noise Before the Big Axes Fall
we might be looking at about 50,000 people that Microsoft gets rid of this year
GNU (and the FSF) Still Changing the World
Today, in 2025, GNU powers almost everything
Military-Grade Anti-Linux Microsoft Propaganda Using Microsoft LLMs in Fake 'News' Sites (Slopfarms)
This is part of a pattern
 
"Victory Day" - Part II: Abject Defeat to Hypocrites and Objectionable People Who Strangle Women Whilst on Microsoft's Payroll
Someone is going to have to pay for this; it won't be us
Links 09/05/2025: Inflation Rising and Rights to Protest Curtailed Some More
Links for the day
Gemini Links 09/05/2025: Good and Evil, LLMs Made the Web Worse Yet Again
Links for the day
European Patent Office (EPO) Faked "Revenue Expansion" by Granting Loads of Invalid, Illegal Patents; Staff Still Wants to Know Where That Money Went
Only about 30% of the EPO's patents are for EU entities/people
Links 09/05/2025: TeleMessage Blunder, More Distractions From Impending Mass Layoffs at Microsoft
Links for the day
Links 09/05/2025: Analog Computer and First time at FOSDEM
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, May 08, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, May 08, 2025
Links 08/05/2025: Mass Layoffs at Google Again, India/Pakistan Tensions Continue to Grow, New Pope (US) Selected
Links for the day
"Victory Day" - Part I: That is the Day Microsofters Who Assault Women Pay for Their Actions in Foreign Land (Using "Guns for Hire" Who Attack Their Own Country for American Dollars)
Adding a friend from Microsoft to the docket didn't help
Rust is Starting to Seem More Like Microsoft-hosted "Digital Maoism", Not a Legitimate Effort to Improve Security
Maybe this is very innocent, but they seem to have taken a solid, stable program from a high-profile Frenchman and looked for ways to marry it with GitHub, i.e. Microsoft/NSA
Gemini Links 08/05/2025: Practical Gemini Use Case, Shutdown of the Blanket Fort Webring
Links for the day
Links 08/05/2025: "Slop Presidency", US Government Defunds Public Broadcasting
Links for the day
Lasse Fister, Organiser of Libre Graphics Meeting, Points Out the Code of Conduct is Likely Violated by the Same People Who Promote Codes of Conduct (and Then Bully Him Into Cancelling a Keynote)
I am starting to see Lasse Fister as another victim
LLM Slop Attacks Not Only Sites of Free Software Projects But Also Bug Reporting Systems (Time-wasting, in Effect "DDoS")
Microsoft, the leading purveyor and promoter of slop, is a cancer
The Richard Stallman (RMS) "European Tour" Carries on In Spite of the Nuremberg Incident
Some people spoke about how they saw yesterday's talk
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, May 07, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, May 07, 2025
The CoC Means the Founder of GNU/Linux Cannot Talk and a 72-Year-Old Man With Cancer is Somehow a "Safety" Risk?
Those who don't like RMS are not forced to attend his talks
Gemini Links 07/05/2025: A Shopping Spree and Digital Gardening
Links for the day
Links 07/05/2025: Pegasus Guilty and a Path Towards EU Without Russian Energy
Links for the day
People Used to Talk
If pets can live a measurably happy life without gadgets and "apps", why can't humans?
Outsourcing GNU/Linux to Microsoft GitHub Promoted by Microsoft LLM Slop and Army Officers
Something doesn't seem right
Weaponisation of For-Profit Dockets - Part III: No More Media Lawsuits From Brett Wilson LLP This Year, One Can Only Guess Why
People leak a lot of material to Techrights because they know, based on the track record, that the sources will be protected and whatever gets published will stay online, in full, no matter how stubborn an effort (even lawsuits and blackmail) will be sent its way
Gemini Links 07/05/2025: Adopting GrapheneOS, Further Enshittification of Flickr
Links for the day
Links 07/05/2025: CISA Gutted, Debt-Saddled (Likely Insolvent) 'Open' 'AI' (Proprietary Slop) Faking Its Financial State Again
Links for the day
Finland, Lithuania, and Latvia Fortify Their Digital Border With GNU/Linux
This month's data from statCounter is particularly interesting near the Baltic Sea
The European Patent Office (EPO) Has a Very Profound Corruption Issue, Far More Urgent an Issue Than Pronouns
a rather long document
Richard Stallman Gives Public Talk at Technical University of Liberec, Czech Republic
"For programs that you could run, and for network services that could do your own computing, under what circumstances is it reasonable to trust them?"
Today We Turn 18.5
The eighteenth "and a half" anniversary
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, May 06, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, May 06, 2025