UK Health Data Listed for Sale on China’s Alibaba After Breach

Health records from 500,000 people who are participating in British research into aging and diseases were made available for sale on an Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. website.

Database owner UK Biobank notified the UK government on Monday that the data had been advertised in three online listings on Alibaba’s site, technology minister Ian Murray told lawmakers in the House of Commons in a statement on Thursday.

The UK Biobank’s data is collected from volunteers, who share their health information in what the organization says is the biggest repository of health, lifestyle and biological data in the world, used to track the long-term health of people as they age. It collects direct medical data such as MRI scans and biomarkers, as well as self-reported lifestyle information.

Murray said that the data has been removed from Alibaba after the British government requested that it was taken down. He said it did not contain the names, addresses or contact details of individual participants. Still, the UK Biobank has separately warned that participants who post information about their genealogy could be identified by others cross-referencing its data.

Representatives for Alibaba did not respond to a request for comment.

The data does not appear to have been hacked or stolen. Murray said the information was leaked by researchers at three institutions with access to UK Biobank data, which he didn’t name.

“The actions of these individuals are a clear breach of the contract they signed with UK Biobank and they, along with their academic institutions, immediately had their access suspended,” said Sir Rory Collins, CEO and principal investigator of UK Biobank in a statement.

UK Biobank has taken its platform offline while it adds further security measures, he added.

Last year, The Guardian reported that UK security agency MI5 had raised concerns about Chinese researchers’ access to UK Biobank data, but the arrangement was nonetheless approved by the government, according to the newspaper.

Photo credit: Jean-Philippe Ksiazek/AFP via Getty Images