There was a 41% increase since last year in the number of councils where more than half of the population requested their name be taken off the edited electoral roll sold for marketing purposes.
This took the proportion of councils with the majority of residents opted out from 22.9% to 32.3%.
Ealing council had the highest opt-out rate this year at 82.3% and the lowest was in North Tayside & Angus, at 9.94%.
Mike Green, chief executive of Callcredit Information Group, said: "In an economic environment such as it is, these regional differentiations will provide yet another profound blow to businesses that are endeavouring to drive business by targeting localised marketing campaigns around stores, branches and dealerships.
"Where opt out rates are at their highest it is inevitable that marketers will have to look to sources of data other than the Edited Electoral Roll to top up their acquisition campaigns."