Data of 500,000 Volunteers from UK-Based UK Biobank Was Put Up for Sale on Alibaba
Data belonging to volunteers of the UK-based UK Biobank was put up for sale on the Chinese e-commerce platform Alibaba. The British government is investigating how the data was listed for sale.
Ian Murray, Labour MP for Edinburgh South and Minister of State at the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology in the United Kingdom, told the House of Commons that data belonging to the health organization UK Biobank was briefly listed for sale on Alibaba by at least three vendors. Health data voluntarily provided to a charity for research purposes was put up for sale by three vendors on the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. One listing was seen to contain data from 500,000 people.
UK Biobank Confirmed That the Data of Approximately Half a Million People Was Anonymized
UK Biobank, which holds a vast biomedical dataset, confirmed that information relating to approximately half a million volunteers had been anonymized and listed for sale on Alibaba. Bio bank acknowledged that it could not guarantee individuals could not be identified if the data fell into unauthorized hands. However, the organization stated that this data did not contain people’s names, addresses, contact details, or telephone numbers.
“We Revoked Access for the Three Research Institutions Identified as the Source of the Information”
Ian Murray said that the data was no longer listed on Alibaba and that they did not believe any buyer had paid to obtain the data. Murray thanked the Chinese government for “the speed and seriousness with which they worked with us to help remove these listings.” Murray stated that they ensured the Bio bank charity revoked access for the three research institutions identified as the source of this information.
As a short-term precautionary response to the incident, UK Biobank suspended all access to its research platform. UK Biobank CEO Rory Collins published an apology message, saying: “We have temporarily suspended all access to the UK Biobank research platform, while putting in place a strict limit on the size of files that can be taken off the platform.”
One of the Largest Biobanks in the World
The charity UK Biobank is one of the large biobanks in the world. These bio banks are often government-supported projects that aim to collect and organize various medical data and samples, typically on an anonymized basis. These systems are regarded as one of the most important breakthroughs in modern biomedical research by enabling researchers to access vast datasets quickly and easily.