Health data of 500,000 members of a UK project offered for sale online
in China
[April 24, 2026]
LONDON (AP) — DNA and other confidential health data from 500,000
people who volunteered for a massive U.K. health study were offered for
sale online in China following a data breach this week, the British
government said Thursday.
The information from the U.K. Biobank database was found listed for sale
on the website Alibaba, but names, addresses, contact details or
telephone numbers were not included, the technology minister, Ian
Murray, told lawmakers.
Murray said he could not give a complete guarantee that nobody could be
identified as the data could include gender, age, month and year of
birth, socioeconomic status, lifestyle habits, and measures from
biological samples.
Murray said the information had been legitimately downloaded by three
research institutions in China, who have now had access revoked.
Monday’s breach was an “unacceptable abuse” of the data and the
government is working to figure out how it happened, Murray said.
Those who agreed to make all their health-related data available for
research were 40 to 69 when they joined the study from 2006-2010. The
participants provide detailed information about their lifestyle via
online questionnaires, and consented to providing data from their health
records and related information Some also provide body scans with
medical imaging equipment, provide additional blood, urine and saliva
samples, wear physical activity monitors or heart health monitors.
All the information is used to assess how diseases develop.
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 Murray said the breach was an
“unacceptable abuse of the U.K. Biobank charity’s data and abuse of
the trust that participants readily expect when sharing the data for
research purposes.”
Thanking the Chinese government for its cooperation, Murray said no
purchases had been made and that the data has now been taken down.
U.K. Biobank is the world’s most comprehensive
dataset of biological, health and lifestyle information, and has
been used to achieve improvements in detection and treatment of
dementia, cancers and Parkinson’s. It can be used by scientists
around the world for research that is deemed to be in the public
interest. Data from it has been cited in more than 18,000
peer-reviewed scientific papers, including on major causes of
ill-health.
Apologizing to participants, U.K. Biobank chief executive Rory
Collins said the charity had temporarily closed access to the
research platform and that additional security measures will be put
in place.
Elena Simperl, a professor in the department of informatics at
King’s College London, said the costs of maintaining infrastructure
for flagship data stewardship projects like that of U.K. Biobank are
treated as an "afterthought."
“The U.K. has built something remarkable, but we need to keep
investing in keeping it safe,” she said.
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