Half a million of us want to donate our data to British science, but it’s languishing unused because of privacy fears

‘Anxiety about abuse of NHS data may not be helped by news that the frontrunner for a £480m federated data platform contract is Palantir.’ Photograph: Chris Rout/Alamy

I delight in messages from UK Biobank, making me feel useful for minimal effort. Back in 2006, with half a million others aged between 40 and 69, I signed up to this magnificent project, the world’s most advanced genetic database.

They took blood, saliva and urine, measured bone density and made notes on exercise, alcohol and family history, with social class, ethnicity, education, employment and income included. They have sequenced my genome and stored samples in freezers at -80C for future researchers seeking causes and cures long after my death.