When Oracle software CEO Larry Ellison announced his support for a National ID card program heavily dependent on his own company's software, it didn't come as much of a shock to industry-watchers who had seen his company progress from its humble beginnings as a CIA contractor to a firm that employed high-priced Clinton-connected private investigators to dig through the trash of Microsoft supporters.

But some privacy experts may have been surprised to hear that Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Ca.) has endorsed Ellison's concept of a national ID card. After all, isn't this the senator who goes about demanding immediate regulation of business and consumer-to-business practices in the name of "privacy"_

Of course, Ellison's Oracle would benefit from the "free" software doing so, in the form of installation and upgrade fees. And the rest of Feinstein's home turf -- the Bay Area, Silicon Valley -- would benefit tremendously from the further databasing of Americans. Microchips, subdatabases, (allegedly) secure bandwidth infrastructure, etc., etc.

Feinstein has been proposing national IDs since at least 1995. She has variously supported nationally standardized driver's licenses and cards with biometric identifiers such as fingerprints, retinal scans and voice readings required for anyone with a job (to fight illegal immigration, doncha know).

Feinstein and Ellison's efforts are reportedly falling flat, but that doesn't mean Americans serious about their privacy should not keep an eye on those who would seize it. As seen here, they often come back to the issue after a defeat, seemingly angling for a return engagement as Privacy Villain of the Week.

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