On 2024-13-01 17:37:56 Akira Urushibata wrote:
> n October 2022 I posted here an article about a computer system named
> "Horizon" whose errors led to hundreds of false criminal accusations.
>
> British Post Office computer system scandal
> Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2022 07:24:41 +0900 (JST)
> https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/libreplanet-discuss/2022-10/msg00002.htm
>l
>
> > In 1999 the British Post Office installed a computer system named
> > "Horizon". From the early training phase problems were reported, but
> > the upper management at both the Post Office and developer Fujitsu
> > failed to take corrective measures. As a result Horizon kept
> > providing phony reports of lost funds in branch offices. The Post
> > Office responded aggressively to these reports by prosecuting managers
> > of these offices.
> >
> > Subsequent investigations have brought to light disturbing details.
> > During prosecutions the Post Office had claimed that only branch
> > masters had access to the financial data in Horizon but this was
> > untrue: a back door existed which gave engineers access to these
> > figures. They had withheld relevant code and data from courts.
> > They had also lied to those accused, claiming that theirs were
> > isolated cases when in reality there were over 700.
> >
> > This looks like a showcase of what harm can be done by refusing to
> > disclose code and data and by keeping victims helpless by isolating
> > them.
> >
> > ...
>
> ---
>
> This January BBC aired the drama "Mr Bates vs The Post Office" based
> on the experiences of Alan Bates, one of the victims, bringing greater
> public attemtion to the fiasco.
>
> UK Prime Minister Sunak has admitted in Parliament that this is "one of
> the greatest miscarriages of justice in our nation's history"; he has
> also expressed his desire to clear the names of those wrongly accused
> and offer compensation.
IMO the real problem was the mistaken "computers are always right"
which we
see fairly often. The British Post Office management seemed to have not
noticed a sudden spike in the number of "crooked postmasters," which ought to
have alerted them to problems with their software.
Leslie
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