Hello, Patient privacy is key when it comes to get patient consent for participation in research. The mass surveillance revealed by Edward Snowden may impact trust and affect in the long run our ability to obtain data or work with them. Those of us working with patients' data, including genomic data, may find this petition relevant: http://www.avaaz.org/en/send_snowden_home_loc/?copy. All the best, Vincent Detours, Ph. D. http://homepages.ulb.ac.be/~vdetours/ IRIBHM - Universit?? Libre de Bruxelles -- output of sessionInfo(): none -- Sent via the guest posting facility at bioconductor.org.