The Deutsche Welle reports on a vetting scandal at the German rail operator.

Peter Schaar, the federal data protection commissioner, said he was appalled by the high number of those who were investigated by the company. “It is complete nonsense when every single conductor falls under general suspicion.”

The screenings took place in 2002 and 2003 when data such as addresses, telephone numbers and banking information was compared with a list of 80,000 companies that do business with Deutsche Bahn. According to those in the committee hearing, out of 173,000 reviews, 100 cases of impropriety turned up.

Stern actually broke the story after it found that Network Deutschland, the company embroiled in last year’s Deutsche Telekom privacy scandal, had also worked with Deutsche Bahn. Expect more privacy regulation in Germany, if not the EU, in response to these stories.