Researchers throughout the world are going to great lengths to get hold of your genes, tissue and health information. Yet, remarkably, there is very little consensus on how they should be going about doing that. In an essay publishing 25 July in the open access journal PLOS Biology, University of Alberta health law researchers Timothy Caulfield and Blake Murdoch argue that there remains a deep lack of clarity around basic legal and ethical principles surrounding consent, and that these issues are only going to intensify.