Less than two weeks ago, we looked at how Europe's biggest phone company, Deutsche Telekom, was spying on executives and journalists to track down the source of leaks.

If that sent shock-waves through Germany because of its history, it was well-justified. Now we have reports that Deutsche Telekom used agents of the former East German secret police, the Stasi, to do its dirty work.

But perhaps this sort activity is more common in Germany than we thought with reports that the German railway system Deutsche Bahn hired the same detective agency Deutsche Telekom used to spy on its own employees.

There is something very unsettling about that.