UK Biobank Health Data Briefly Listed for Sale on Alibaba After Breach

10 articles · Updated · Bloomberg · Apr 23

Health data from 500,000 UK Biobank participants was listed for sale on China’s Alibaba website after a contract breach by three research institutions.
The listings, which did not include names or addresses, were swiftly removed with cooperation from the Chinese government and Alibaba; no purchases were reported.
UK Biobank has suspended data access and referred itself to regulators, pledging stricter security to protect participant trust in future research.

Was the UK Biobank data sale an act of rogue scientists or a glimpse into geopolitical data warfare?

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