You are probably thinking about Latanya Sweeney's study out of CMU. There are standards for de-identification that use her work (and others) to prevent the ability to re-identify probabilistically.

Larry Page is just complaining that Google doesn't have the data. These data already exist and are being extensively studied by researchers in academics, government, health insurers, employers, and pharmaceutical companies. The de-identified data can be licensed and analyzed by anyone. The fully identifiable information is routinely analyzed by the owners of the data.

The problem is not access to the data, the problem is that it is difficult to make valid inferences about causation from observational data.

Here is the story:

http://www.slate.com/articles/...

In the U.S. being "born alive" is defined by Federal Statute. http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/1/8

Some information about differences by nation is contained on page 7 of this Congressional Research Service report: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41378.pdf

This is nearly a decade old, so some changes may have occurred.

Even at private institutions with very high tuition rates, your tuition payment represents a fraction of the costs of your education. All students are on a scholarship.

You've left out another important factor. Publishers often charge the researchers that are providing the content "page charges" to defray publication costs. Researchers are willing to pay this fee (often hundreds of dollars for a single article) because success in their field is judged in part by the reputation of the journals in which they have published.