The old system was also bent. In the early 2000s my wife and I bought a UK flat as non-residents (90 day rule) & so not eligible to vote. Told the local council and their voter registration guy. Four years in, the council ignored my return form specifying us as non-res, registered us, and put us on the open register. We were inundated with junk but it took a while to find out that the council had sold our info to three UK database companies. The council refused to come clean with us and ignored 2 FoI requests, so we called in the Information Commissioner. He told the local council off, ordered it to expunge our personal data from everyone they'd flogged or given it to (barring of course the security services), said it would probably not happen again, but refused to tell us what had been done to prevent repetition. We did a few protective things and the council did expunge our data (but not, of course copies) and didn't bother us again.
Now we've become resident and must register with these crooks on pain of a fine. Of course we'll tick the correct box, but their new form says that the non-open electoral register can be 'used for other limited purposes specified by law, such as: detecting crime, calling people for jury service, checking credit applications'. I've asked them to fully specify the 'such as', but they won't, and taken with the 'checking credit' loophole, it's clear they're up to their old tricks. So back into battle; if El Reg keeps tracking this I'll post updates.
(Reg, email me if you want the council's identity).
Biting the hand that feeds IT
