When the electoral roll was created, in 1832, candidates used the register to challenge political opponent's right to vote. Times have changed, and nowadays the register is exploited by companies with a commercial interest. List brokers such as Experian buy a copy of all local registers, combine the data with other databases, and sell the data to other list brokers and junk mail companies.

The commercial use of the electoral register by junk mail companies dates back to the 1960s but only really became a political issue at around the turn of the century. Selling data collected to administer elections on a "no questions asked" is obviously incompatible with current data protection legislation, and there has been plenty of opposition from the likes of the Electoral Commission and Information Commissioner. Successive governments have been reluctant to scrap the for-sale register but, since 2002, you can opt out of the being included on the for-sale register. Most people do — in 2022 the opt-out rate in England and Wales was just under 70 per cent.