Voters' personal details are being sold off for tens of thousands of pounds to politicians, private companies and credit check agencies.
The Electoral Office for Northern Ireland has received more than £115,000 in five years selling voter information contained on the electoral register, which records the names and addresses of people entitled to vote.
Political parties, election candidates and pollsters as well as public bodies, businesses, organisations and private individuals have paid to access the electoral roll, details obtained by Belfast Live show.
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The availability of voter details on some registers may lead to "more junk mail", the Electoral Office said.
A total of 125 sales of electoral registers by the Electoral Office worth £115,360 have been recorded since 2017-18, according to a Freedom of Information response.
There are three versions of the electoral roll - the full, edited and marked registers.
The full register lists the names and addresses of everyone entitled to vote. Only certain people and organisations are entitled to obtain copies and they can only use them for specific purposes, such as elections, crime prevention and credit checks.
Political parties, elected representatives and police are among those allowed to receive the full register free of charge, while government departments and credit reference agencies can purchase it.
The edited register is available for sale to anyone for any purpose, but it omits the names and addresses of people who have asked to be excluded.
If your details are included in the edited register, they will be available "for commercial purposes" and you "may receive more junk mail", the Electoral Office said on its website.
The marked register records who has voted in an election. It is the polling station register on which a mark has been placed against the name of every person who was issued with a ballot paper.
Only police and other law enforcement agencies can receive free copies of the marked register.
Political parties, elected representatives, election candidates and government departments are among those entitled to pay for copies. Purchased copies can only be used for matters such as research and electoral purposes.
Forty full registers were bought over the period costing a total of £88,093.
Among the purchasers were credit reference agencies, Mid Ulster District Council and Stormont departments including the Department for Communities, which is responsible for benefits issues such as tackling benefit fraud.
A total of 32 edited registers were sold with the payments reaching £7,158. Buyers included polling company Ipsos Mori, goldmining firm Dalradian and some GAA clubs.
Some 53 marked registers worth a total of £20,109 were sold, with the recipients being political parties, elected representatives and election candidates.
Legislation under the Representation of the People (Northern Ireland) Regulations 2008 details who can obtain a copy of the full register and for what purpose it may be used.
Edited registers are destroyed once a new version is published, according to the Electoral Office website.
It added: "The edited register omits the names and addresses of people who have asked to be excluded from that version of the register, either by ticking the Edited Register box on the registration form or asking to have their details removed from this register.
"If your details are included in the edited register they will be available to websites such as 192.com and other organisations for commercial purposes. You may receive more junk mail if your details are included in the edited register."
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