A multi-year research study that began in 2016 is under scrutiny after some participants learned their personal health information may have been compromised.

The Manitoba Personalized Lifestyle Research program, or TMPLR, involved hundreds of Manitobans.

In a letter to people taking part in the study, the University of Manitoba says the breach involved the improper handling of participants' information.

An audit of the study revealed 420 participants’ information wasn't being handled, stored or secured properly. It was supposed to be kept on campus, but the university learned it had been stored off site instead. 

The letter says this "allowed potential accessibility of the data by a third-party company hosting the data, no encryption of data, and not having a contractual agreement in place with the third-party information manager.” 

"There's no reason for them to believe, or for us to believe that any of their information was accessed," said John Danakas from the University Of Manitoba. 

"But the information was not stored in-house at the university but with a third party. And so that piece was shared with the participants so that they are aware."

The study was designed to investigate how people's lifestyles and genetics differ, and see how it can lead to chronic disease. The university says this type of health information and demographic data was exposed.

The breach was reported to the Manitoba Ombudsman. 

"The data breach was reported to us January 15th of this year," said acting ombudsman Marc Cormier. 

"In Manitoba it's not required under law to report breaches to us. But we always appreciate when public bodies such as U of M do report to us. So currently we're taking the opportunity to conduct a review of how they handled that breach."

As a result of the breach of the Personal Health Information Act, the university says use of the personal data collected for the study can no longer be used. That means the data won't be analyzed any further, and will instead be destroyed. This also means no test results will be available for those people.