The UK BioBank has just announced that it will release over 500,000 genome sequences to researchers, allowing for different universities and research centers to find links amongst the given population for things such as disease, health, and medical innovation.

Plenty of news will report on the groundbreaking nature of such release and praise the work of these researchers, but is there more to this. Could this release of half a million peoples medical records and genome sequences be a world wide security threat if placed in the hands of bad actors. Can databases truly be secure enough to prevent breaches directly linking medical records to the individual participants. Will this information be acquired and used in gain of function research.

You will have to make a decision for yourself when asked to participate in these types of studies ...