Senior EU officials have warned that plans to equip Europol with artificial intelligence threaten privacy, placing the agency’s technological ambitions alongside questions about data protection and civil liberties.
Europol and the Joint Research Centre, or JRC, conducted a horizon-scanning study that reviewed almost 200 technological signals before choosing ten developments they considered especially relevant to future law-enforcement work.
The work was developed by the EU Policy Lab at the JRC and Europol’s Innovation Lab. It drew on contributions from law enforcement, academia, research, industry and civil society.
Its subjects included AI, encrypted computing, distributed ledgers, quantum systems and digital identity. The study found that these technologies can aid investigations while also making evidence more difficult to obtain or interpret.
That leaves investigators facing a practical constraint as well as a legal one. The study says legal powers have limited value when investigators lack the skills or infrastructure to understand the technology in question.
Encrypted computing, quantum systems, AI, distributed ledgers and future communications networks all require specialist software, hardware, training and forensic methods. Many public bodies cannot maintain those capabilities by themselves. Private employers are already competing for advanced cyber and AI skills.
The expense rises further in cross-border cases, where forensic systems must preserve a traceable record of evidence across several legal systems.
Quantum technology presents a longer-term challenge. Sufficiently capable quantum computers could eventually weaken cryptographic systems in wide use today. Governments and businesses are preparing for post-quantum cryptography, while law-enforcement bodies must also assess what those protections mean for gathering evidence and conducting forensic work.
The study also identifies technologies that could allow investigations to proceed with tighter safeguards around sensitive information. Fully homomorphic encryption makes it possible to analyse encrypted information without exposing the underlying data first.
The JRC and Europol say privacy-preserving systems could support legitimate investigations when agencies have appropriate technical and legal controls. The officials’ warning leaves a question over whether Europol can build those controls as it expands its use of AI.
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