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Until 2002, British citizens had no control over whether their personal details from the electoral register were sold on to other organisations.

There are a large number of websites that offer to provide private individual's personal information - for a price. Usually these sites are over hyped and under deliver but there are several sites which do reveal data, say from the electoral register, that individuals might prefer to keep out of the general public domain.

The ICO issued the enforcement notice against b4usearch.com after receiving almost 1,600 complaints about the site. Among those who complained to the ICO about b4usearch.com included a police officer whose family's names and addresses, along with a map to their house, appeared on the website and an individual who had previously been a victim of identity fraud. Both were concerned about the availability of their personal information and the fact that their requests to b4usearch.com asking for their details to be removed had been ignored.

The ICO says it will now investigate other companies using pre-2002 electoral register information in similar circumstances.