FREEIMAGES, SCHULERGDAnonymous patients whose DNA data is shared via a network of web servers—or beacons—set up by the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health are at risk of being reidentified, according to a report published today (October 29) in The American Journal of Human Genetics. In it, researchers from Stanford University and their colleagues present recommendations for how security could be improved, but some scientists argue that any promise of DNA data privacy is probably a fallacy.
“The paper shows that . . . if you have access to someone’s DNA, you can now go and check in different beacons to see whether [that person] participated,” said computer scientist and computational biologist Yaniv Erlich of Columbia University in New York City who was not involved in the work.
The Beacon Project was established by the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health as a way for research institutes and hospitals to easily share genomic data while maintaining patient privacy. Essentially, the system allows a user to ask whether a specific nucleotide exists at a particular chromosome location in any genome held in a given beacon, but keeps all other sequence data concealed. This means that a clinician could check whether a mutation found ...
