UK investigates after big health dataset listed for sale on China's Alibaba

LONDON, April ​23 (Reuters) - Britain ⁠is investigating how data from a ​health charity came to be advertised for sale on China's Alibaba, a government minister said ​on Thursday, ‌including one dataset that appeared to contain information from 500,000 people.

Science minister Ian Murray told ⁠lawmakers that the charity, UK Biobank, had informed ⁠the government on Monday that ​its data appeared to have been advertised for sale in three different listings by several sellers in China on Alibaba's e-commerce platforms.

UK Biobank, a health research charity that ​provides anonymised data ‌to accredited researchers, said the data from its 500,000 volunteers did not include their names, addresses, contact details or telephone numbers, Murray said.

"The government has spoken to the vendor today and they do not believe that there were ​any purchases from the three listings before they were taken down," Murray said.

He ‌added that the government had worked with UK Biobank, the Chinese government and the vendor to have the listings ‌removed, and that the charity had revoked access to three research institutions identified as the source of the data.

Murray said that UK Biobank had referred itself to ​the Information Commissioner's Office. The charity did not immediately responded to a request for comment on ‌the breach.

A spokesperson for the ICO said: "People's medical data is highly sensitive information, not only do people expect it to be handled carefully and securely, organisations also ⁠have a responsibility ⁠under the law.

"UK Biobank has made us aware ‌of an incident and we are making enquiries."

Access to the charity's data had also been paused ​while technical measures were ​put in place to prevent bulk downloads, Murray said, ‌confirming that the suspension had already been in effect.

Murray described the incident as an unacceptable abuse of UK Biobank's data, and said the government took the matter "extremely seriously." (Reporting by Sam Tabahriti; editing by Sarah Young)