Inmate’s integrity questioned?

German airline Lufthansa has been finding out the hard way
that data processing of confidential information should not be left in the wrong
hands.

Herald 26/8/2002 "One of Europe's leading airlines
thought it was doing its bit for society when it employed a select group of
prisoners to process its paperwork.

But Lufthansa changed its mind when it emerged that the
inmates of a German prison had been using the work scheme to access the personal
data of higher-flying customers.

The task of the inmates of Glasmor prison in Northern Germany
was literally to "iron out" used flight coupons so they could be put into
electronic databases.

But the 30 inmates responsible for processing around 200,000
coupons a day turned the work into an international trade in personal data.

Model Claudia Schiffer, chairman of Bayern Munich, Franz
Beckenbauer and US tennis champion Michael Chang are amongst the personalities
whose data -– including addresses, credit card numbers and in some cases
signatures are suspected of having been sold to Europe's criminal underworld.

Last week Lufthansa said it was preparing to take legal steps
against the prison for breaking strict data protection contracts and for
damaging its image."

It seems you can't trust anyone these days.