500,000 Health Data Records Leaked, Attempted Sale in China Detected

The fact that 500,000 health records registered with the British non-profit UK Biobank were leaked and posted for sale on the Chinese e-commerce platform Alibaba before being deleted has been reported in the UK Parliament.

This news highlights concerns about how participants' health data is handled and the risks associated with large-scale data breaches. UK Biobank notified the British government of the incident on the 20th, and it was determined that one of the three listings for sale contained the data of all 500,000 individuals.

Although direct personal identification information was not leaked, it is suspected that data such as gender, age, date of birth, socioeconomic status, lifestyle habits, and physical measurements may have been included. Access rights for three related research institutions were immediately revoked by Professor Rory Collins of Oxford University, head of UK Biobank.