Privacy activists in Canada never thought it was a good idea to have a centralized, national database containing millions of files of personal information on citizens, and the recent revelation of rampant abuse of the registry confirms their worst fears.

The Canadian National Post reports more than a dozen public servants lost their jobs over the past three years for using the police database to carry out their own detective work – from spying on neighbors to keeping track of former boyfriends. The offenders – some of whom ended up in jail – sold the confidential data to private investigators, gave it to friends, and in one instance, used it "to meet persons of the opposite sex."

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police investigated 98 confirmed security breaches of the Canadian Police Information Center, or CPIC, between Jan. 1, 2000, and Sept. 25, 2002.

"CPIC is a bit of a murky world," Murray Mollard, the executive director of the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association, told the National Post. "It's deeply troubling that there are that many breaches, but the question is, 'How many breaches are there that aren't being discovered?'"

Established in 1972, the database stores information ranging from criminal records to vehicle registrations to most-wanted lists. It is operated by the Mounties, but nearly 1,300 police departments and government agencies have access to it. Civil servants – including secretaries and 911 dispatchers – can tap into the system.

Staff Sgt. Paul Marsh, a spokesman for the Mounties, points out that the 98 security breaches represent a minute percentage compared to the 100 million times the database is accessed every year.

He also stressed numerous safeguards are in place to combat breaches, including regular audits and a three-tier security system, which limits access based on a person's job.

"Security is critical to the system," the Post quotes Marsh as saying. "If the public don't feel that the personal information that is contained therein is secure and being used for lawful purposes, then we risk losing public trust."

The registry free-for-all in Canada bolsters the case of opponents to a national identification card in the United States.

As WorldNetDaily reported, plans to create a national ID using driver's licenses and other documents are gaining ground as the belief grows that they will enhance security. States are working with federal officials to develop "a new generation of driver's licenses that could be checked anywhere and would contain electronically stored information such as fingerprints," the Associated Press reported.

In the immediate aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, Larry Ellison, CEO of software giant Oracle, openly called for lawmakers to adopt a national ID card and said he would donate the software for the project. Ellison met with U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft and with officials from the FBI and CIA to discuss the idea.

Under his proposal, millions of Americans would be fingerprinted, and the information would be placed on a database used by airport security officials to verify identities of travelers at airplane gates.

Last year, as part of a conference report on the Department of Transportation's appropriations request, Congress directed that agency to develop "model guidelines for encoded data on driver's licenses."

"In light of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, it is clear that all levels of government need to work in concert to deter and prevent future attacks. One means of doing so is to ensure that individuals asked to identify themselves are not using false identities," the conference report said.

While President Bush has said he doesn't think a national ID card is necessary, private groups such as the American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators are promoting proposals for one.

National ID cards "are of little use unless they're connected with a centralized database," Bob Levy, senior fellow in constitutional studies at the Washington, D.C.-based CATO Institute warned.

The Canadian experience is that the centralized database poses a temptation too great to be ignored.

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