Medical details from 500 000 UK Biobank participants surfaced on Alibaba during April, with listings offering gender, age, birth month, socioeconomic status, lifestyle habits, mental health, cognitive function, and physical measures. Datasets fold in haematology, biochemistry, metabolomic, and proteomic samples plus ICD-coded outcomes such as cancer with diagnosis dates, exposing granular clinical histories to open bidding beyond research gates.

Listings discovered 20 April include at least one file covering every UK Biobank volunteer, converting a curated public good into saleable inventory on Chinese e-commerce infrastructure. Buyers gain support for applications alongside raw tables, enabling linkage of genomic and imaging archives to personal identifiers without oversight or consent trails that normally govern academic access.

Aggregating deeply phenotyped samples with commercial resale pipelines erodes participant trust and complicates ethical reuse of longitudinal cohorts. Rigorous dataset integrity now depends on tracing distribution chains and revoking credentials rather than assuming controlled dissemination persists once files leave secure enclaves.