Eircom's Golden Pages will be asked today by the Data Protection Commissioner's office to explain how its online directory has violated personal privacy laws despite action by the commissioner that forced partial closure of the site earlier this year.

As of yesterday, visitors to www.goldenpages.ie could access the names, addresses and telephone numbers of all people resident on a particular street by typing in certain key strokes.

In February, the "personal finder" section of the site was closed for six to eight weeks to address similar concerns expressed by the Data Protection Commissioner's office.

Although the section reopened recently, yesterday any visitor placing a space in the "who?" area and a street name in the "where?" box then pressing "search" or "enter" could access a street's profile.

Eircom subscribers expressed concern to the commissioner last summer that such a facility made them targets for direct marketing companies and violated the Data Protection Act.

When contacted by The Irish Times last night, deputy data protection commissioner Mr Tom Lynch said he was "incensed" to find such a search was still possible. "Users should be able to effect a search only where a name or four letters of a name are entered in," he said.

The Golden Pages was surprised that this facility still existed. Business development director, Mr Mark Ryder, said "we'd fixed the site and as far as we were concerned it was removed." The Golden Pages was working to remove the problem last night.

Before approving the revamped Golden Pages site, the commissioner's office entered a variety of keystrokes to ensure that reverse searches were impossible. Mr Lynch has called an meeting for this morning with Eircom's data controllers who have responsibility for the Golden Pages' compliance with the Act.