LONDON - A confidential medical information database held by the UK Biobank charity was offered for sale online in China, the British government informed Parliament on Thursday.
UK Technology Minister Ian Murray told the House of Commons that information of around 500,000 volunteer participants to the comprehensive health database was found listed for sale on the Alibaba e-commerce platform.
He said the government had worked with the charity, the Chinese government and Alibaba to ensure that all three listings involving participant data had been removed soon after being alerted to the data breach on Monday.
UK Biobank is a non-profit charity, independent of the government, which brings together data donated by volunteer participants.
It is then shared with researchers globally to make significant scientific discoveries aimed at improving patient health.
The government stressed that it is taking the incident 'extremely seriously' and will soon be issuing new guidance on control of data from research studies.
