An Alberta woman who fled an abusive domestic relationship via a federal program is suing the province for mistakenly revealing her new identity.

The story of the woman whom CBC News has agreed to call Jane Doe began in 2001 when she and her daughter entered the "New Identities for Victims of Abuse" program.

Under NIVA, Doe and her young daughter were able to change their names and create new identities, but they couldn't tell anyone about their new lives — including family, friends and colleagues.

But after years in hiding and mountains of red tape — it took eight years to complete the paper work — their new lives were turned upside-down in 2009. That's when Doe discovered through an internet search that the Alberta government had published their new names online and in print in the Alberta Gazette in 2004.

'You can't imagine the horror, the grief, the anger, the frustration …'— Jane Doe on discovering that her secret identity had been revealed online

The front page of the Google search "showed our old and our new identities, and you can't imagine the horror, the grief, the anger, the frustration," Doe told the CBC's Karen Moxley. "It's almost like … you're outside your body looking at the computer screen in disbelief that this is really reality."

Doe said she was unable to say whether her abuser had discovered the information.

However, she said, since she and her daughter's identities became public there have been two attempted break-ins at her home and she has received a number of strange telephone calls, including one from a man claiming to be in her backyard.

Heather Klimchuk, the minister responsible for Service Alberta, has acknowledged her department made the mistake.

"We do know that an error was made in 2004, [and] when the individual made us aware of the error, we did take appropriate steps to ensure this type of thing doesn't happen again," Klimchuk told CBC News.

"Service Alberta has put in place additional checks and balances to safeguard the way that name changes are handled."

Doe received an official letter of apology last year from Klimchuk, but was turned down when she applied to the government for financial compensation to help her and her daughter begin their lives anew.

That has led to a personal suit against the government and a demand that legislative changes are made to better protect women in the same situation.