India, April 23 -- The confidential health records of up to half a million British volunteers were listed for sale on three separate listings on Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba last week, in what researchers are calling the 198th known exposure of UK Biobank data since last summer. The listings have since been removed, and no sales are believed to have been made-but the incident has reignited urgent questions about the safety of one of the world's most valuable medical databases and the people who trusted it with their most personal information.

What Is UK Biobank and Why Does It Matter?

UK Biobank is one of the largest and most significant health research projects in the world. Launched in 2003, it recruited 500,000 volunteers aged 40...