UK should be concerned at Chinese gene data harvesting, lawmaker says (updated)

BGI AD

22/07/2021 11:07

* Reuters special report revealed links to China's military
    * Senior lawmaker Tugendhat has been sanctioned by China 
    * BGI says it takes data protection and privacy seriously

 (Adds UK government reaction, context)
    By Alistair Smout
    LONDON, July 22 (Reuters) - Britain should be concerned
about the harvesting of genetic data from millions of women by a
Chinese company through prenatal tests, a senior British
lawmaker told Reuters.    
    A Reuters review of scientific papers and company statements
found that BGI Group developed the tests https://www.reuters.com/investigates/special-report/health-china-bgi-dna
 in collaboration with the Chinese military and is using them to
collect genetic data around the world for research on the traits
of populations.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N2OJ350
    "I'm always concerned when data leaves the United Kingdom,
that it should be treated with the respect and privacy that we
would expect here at home, and the concern that this raises is
that it may not be so," Tom Tugendhat, chairman of the British
parliament's Foreign Affairs Select Committee, told Reuters.    
    "The connections between Chinese genomics firms and the
Chinese military do not align with what we would normally expect
in the United Kingdom or indeed many other countries."
    The privacy policy on the website for the Non-Invasive
Prenatal Test (NIPT), sold under the brand name NIFTY in
Britain, says data collected can be shared when it is "directly
relevant to national security or national defense security" in
China.
    BGI says it has never shared data for national security
purposes and has never been asked to.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL5N2OH2OF
    The company said that it fully complied with European GDPR
data protection rules and also had the British certification for
personal information management. 
    "BGI's NIPT test was developed solely by BGI – not in
partnership with China's military. All NIPT data collected
overseas are stored in BGI's labs in Hong Kong and are destroyed
after five years," it said in an email to Reuters, adding that
it took data protection, privacy and ethics extremely seriously.
    Reuters found that BGI has published at least a dozen joint
studies on the tests with the People's Liberation Army (PLA)
since 2010, trialling and improving the tests or analyzing the
data they provided. 
    DNA data collected from prenatal tests on women outside
China has also been stored in China's government-funded gene
database, one of the world's largest, BGI previously confirmed.
Online records reviewed by Reuters show that the genetic data of
at least 500 women who have taken the NIFTY test, including some
outside China, are stored in the China National GeneBank.
    Tugendhat is one of nine British lawmakers who has been
sanctioned by China for highlighting alleged human rights abuses
in Xinjiang, which Beijing describes as "lies and
disinformation".  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL1N2LN3WA
    He said that any British companies using the tests should be
clear where the data is going, who holds it, and what access
others, including other governments, would have to it. 
    "Unless a company has done that, I think it's perfectly
reasonable for British people to be extremely concerned with
these connections," he said.
    Britain's health ministry said that companies operating in
the United Kingdom must follow strict data protection laws, but
declined to directly comment on BGI's tests and Tugendhat's
concerns.
    

    <^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
SPECIAL REPORT-China's gene giant harvests data from millions of
women     urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N2OJ350
    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^>
 (Reporting by Alistair Smout in London, additional reporting by
Kirsty Needham in Sydney and Clare Baldwin in Hong Kong; Editing
by Kate Holton and Pravin Char)
 ((alistair.smout@thomsonreuters.com; +44 207 542 7064; Reuters
Messaging: alistair.smout.thomsonreuters.com@reuters.net))