MEPs call for Europol expansion pause after shadow IT investigation reveals 2 petabytes of data held without legal safeguards

Members of the European Parliament have called for Europol’s mandate expansion to be paused following a Computer Weekly / Correctiv / Solomon investigation disclosing that the agency held over 2 petabytes of personal data including identity documents banking records and geolocation data outside EU data protection law. The Pressure Cooker system used to analyse open-source data was concealed from the EDPS. German MEP Ozlem Alev Demirel called for a halt. The findings coincide with Commission plans to expand Europol’s budget and data-processing powers.

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