How safe the UCSC is for patients data

Question

[Sara]

I have some DNAseq data from patients and trying to load them the UCSC. but since the data is from patients and rules about the patients data is so strict I need to know if UCSC is really safe or not. do you know how safe the UCSC is for patients samples?

[Carambakaracho]

if you have legal restrictions on data sharing, then uploading them to any third party (like UCSC) might breach your contractual obligations, irrespective of whether the data is publicly available or not.

I recommend to use a local installation of IGV as ATpoint suggested.

[microfuge]

The GBiB (Genome browser in a box) option could work and the help page says this

(from https://genome.ucsc.edu/goldenpath/help/gbib.html )

Genome Browser in a Box (GBiB) is a "virtual machine" of the entire UCSC Genome Browser website that is designed to run on most PCs (Windows, Mac OSX or Linux). GBiB allows you to access much of the UCSC Genome Browser's functionality from the comfort of your own computer. It is particularly directed at individuals who want to use the Genome Browser toolset to view protected data. If it is not human sequencing reads, it usually does not fall under medical data privacy rules, and you should most likely not use GBiB but rather assembly hubs or track hubs. See our mirror page for adiscussion of the advantages/disadvantages of the different methods to customize your genome data display.

[ATpoint]

I would say no matter what advice you get here, none of it will have any legal value. I suggest you contact the UCSC helpdesk on that matter if youu seek information on data security and consult with the ethics/legal department responsible for your institution to find out how things should be handled. An alternative to the UCSC (I guess you mean genome browser) would be the IGV which allows local installation.