Functional genomics data: privacy risk assessment and technological mitigation

The generation of functional genomics data by next-generation sequencing has increased greatly in the past decade. Broad sharing of these data is essential for research advancement but poses notable privacy challenges, some of which are analogous to those that occur when sharing genetic variant data. However, there are also unique privacy challenges that arise from cryptic information leakage during the processing and summarization of functional genomics data from raw reads to derived quantities, such as gene expression values. Here, we review these challenges and present potential solutions for mitigating privacy risks while allowing broad data dissemination and analysis. This Perspective highlights privacy issues related to the sharing of functional genomics data, including genotype and phenotype information leakage from different functional genomics data types and their summarization steps. The authors also review the techniques that will enable broad sharing and analysis while maintaining privacy.