Communications of the ACM
Bad Software Sent U.K. Postal Workers to Jail
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The Horizon software used by U.K. Post Office employees for the past 20 years had a fatal flaw that made it look like employees stole tens of thousands of British pounds. Some local postmasters were convicted of crimes and sent to prison. After decades of fighting, 39 postal workers have had their convictions overturned.
The impact on the employees has been vast. Some lost marriages or time with their children.
Horizon was made by Fujitsu, and information from it was used to prosecute 736 Post Office employees between 2000 and 2014. Bugs in the system would cause it to report that accounts that were under the employees' control were short.
The chief executive of the Post Office said earlier this month that Horizon would be replaced with a cloud-based solution. The Post Office will work with the government to compensate affected employees, he said.
From The Verge
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