MEPs call for greater scrutiny of Europol following concerns over shadow IT | Computer Weekly

"Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have called for the expansion of Europol to be paused following disclosures that the police organisation ran a shadow IT system containing vast amounts of data without adequate security or data protection measures in place."

"Europol stored petabytes of crime-related data on a network that operated for years without scrutiny from regulators, despite significant privacy and security flaws. Europol's "shadow" databases were used to analyse vast volumes of sensitive data, such as telephone records, identity documents, banking information or geolocation data and included data relating to individuals not suspected of any crime."

"They also included a shadow system known as the Pressure Cooker, used for analysing open-source information on the internet, that lacked proper controls. Despite several years of monitoring by the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS), some major flaws remained unaddressed in 2026."

""Before we begin discussing a potential expansion of Europol's mandate, there needs to be genuine Parliamentary oversight, independent supervision with real powers of intervention, and full disclosure and transparency regarding matters that have remained hidden until now," she added."

Members of the European Parliament called for pausing plans to expand Europol after disclosures that Europol operated shadow IT systems for years. Europol stored petabytes of crime-related data on a network that regulators did not scrutinize, despite privacy and security flaws. The shadow databases were used to analyse sensitive information such as telephone records, identity documents, banking data, and geolocation data, including data about people not suspected of any crime. The systems also included a shadow tool called “Pressure Cooker” for analysing open-source internet information without proper controls. Even after years of monitoring by the European Data Protection Supervisor, major flaws remained unaddressed in 2026. MEPs demanded genuine parliamentary oversight, independent supervision with intervention powers, and full disclosure and transparency.

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