Free Republic

The Deutsche Post subsidiary Deutsche Post Direkt has rejected claims that it “flogged” client microtargeting data to clients, including German political parties such as the Christian Democrats (CDU) and the Free Democrats (FDP). The Bild am Sonntag newspaper reported that the two parties had bought “more than a billion” details of personal data about potential voters from the subsidiary, which offers targeted-mailing concepts to its clients. Deutsche Post insists that it never sells details of addresses or individual households, and that the data it offers to clients — which it calls microcells — is based on “a standard of 6.6...

Several Brits living in Germany have said they have had to pay extra to send their ballots in for the EU referendum. Others worry that their votes may now be stuck in the post. Three British nationals have told The Local that Deutsche Post did not recognize the prepaid postage on mail-in ballots for the so-called Brexit referendum. The ballots have been marked with an International Business Response Service (IBRS) stamp, which the UK Electoral Commission assured The Local should mean that the sender pays nothing towards the cost of delivery. But Jon Worth, a Berlin-based blogger, described on Facebook...

Medicine deliveries to a pharmacy on a North Sea island will be made by a drone, Deutsche Post announced on Wednesday, in the first project of its kind. It is the first time that an unmanned drone will be used for a practical business purpose in Europe, the company claims. Inhabitants and visitors on the island of Juist, which has a population of fewer than 2,000, will be able to order medicines from the Seehund Pharmacy and have them delivered from the mainland by the drone. …

Deutsche Post used a drone to deliver a package for the first time on Monday, flying a box from a pharmacy across the Rhine, just a week after Amazon carried off a similar stunt. … The drone flew at a height of 50 meters for one kilometer and took two minutes to complete the journey. It was flown by two men using a remote control, but the technology also exists to direct the drones to their destination with GPS. …

German mail company Deutsche Post has inadvertently issued stamps bearing the image of Adolf Hitler's former deputy, Rudolf Hess, the company said on Wednesday. Deutsche Post printed 20 stamps with Hess next to a bouquet of flowers as part of a service which allows clients to order custom-made envelopes, a company spokesman said. "It is very unfortunate. But it happened," the spokesman said. "I presume it came from the far-right scene. But those 20 envelopes won't shake up German democracy." The stamps would be offensive to Jewish groups and embarrassing to Germans anxious to live down the country's Nazi past....

<p>Bonn, May 6 (Bloomberg) -- Deutsche Post AG Chief Executive Officer Klaus Zumwinkel's plan to boost earnings by expanding the German postal service in the $65 billion U.S. delivery market may be dealt a blow by United Parcel Service Inc. and FedEx Corp.</p>