Legal aspects of privacy-enhancing technologies in genome-wide association studies and their impact on performance and feasibility

Abstract

Genomic data holds huge potential for medical progress but requires strict safety measures due to its sensitive nature to comply with data protection laws. This conflict is especially pronounced in genome-wide association studies (GWAS) which rely on vast amounts of genomic data to improve medical diagnoses. To ensure both their benefits and sufficient data security, we propose a federated approach in combination with privacy-enhancing technologies utilising the findings from a systematic review on federated learning and legal regulations in general and applying these to GWAS.