DEV-TOOLSApril 24, 20261 min read9 views

UK Biobank leak: Health details of 500 000 people are offered for sale

Medical details of 500,000 UK Biobank participants have been discovered for sale on the Chinese e-commerce site Alibaba. The leaked data includes sensitive information ranging from lifestyle habits to complex biochemical measurements and cancer diagnosis records.

UK Biobank leak: Health details of 500 000 people are offered for sale on Chinese website

BMJ 2026; 393 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.s781 (Published 24 April 2026) Cite this as: BMJ 2026;393:s781- Stephen Armstrong

London

Medical details from 500 000 participants in the health data charity UK Biobank have been discovered for sale on the Chinese e-commerce site Alibaba.

Data for sale included people’s gender, age, month and year of birth, socioeconomic status, lifestyle habits, mental health, self-reported medical history, cognitive function, and physical measures.

Measurements from haematology, biochemistry, metabolomic, and proteomic samples, as well as data on health outcomes in conditions coded in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD), such as cancer—including diagnosis dates—were also available, UK Biobank told The BMJ.

UK Biobank said that it had discovered three listings offering the data for sale on Monday 20 April, with at least one of these three datasets containing data from all 500 000 UK Biobank volunteers. There were also listings offering support for applying for …

Source: Hacker News

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