The home and email addresses of all 38,000 people who ran Sunday's London Marathon, including a number of British celebrities and politicians, were accidentally posted online.
A spokesperson for the United Kingdom's Information Commission told BBC News that the agency would launch an investigation into how the participants' personal information appeared on the Virgin London Marathon website, where it remained accessible to the public all day yesterday (April 23).
Among the runners were notable British public figures including chef Gordon Ramsay, model Nell McAndrew, pop singer Will Young and stars of the TV shows "Coronation Street" and "The Only Way is Essex."
The runners' information was accidentally posted on the website under the section in which commemorative medals could be ordered. The massive mistake did not come to light until a member of the public contacted a television presenter whose home address had been made available.
London Marathon chief executive Nick Bitel told BBC News that the security glitch that caused the runners' info to be made publicly available was immediately fixed, and the runners' personal information was removed from the site.