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EU: Europol data repositories "beyond iBase and Palantir"

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25 October 2021

In response to a letter from an MEP, EU policing agency Europol has disclosed some of the "data repositories" that it operates, "beyond iBase and Palantir".

In February this year, Patrick Breyer, a German MEP for the Pirate Party and member of the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament, asked for "the reply of 18 November 2019 from Europol to the EDPS [the European Data Protection Supervisor] which provides an indicative and non-exhaustive list of data repositories for operational information beyond iBase and Palantir."

Europol's response says the full letter is classified, but it does provide:

"...the data repositories listed in Europol’s letter of 18 November 2019 (beyond iBase and Palantir), namely the:

• • Facial Comparison and Evaluation (FACE) system and the Image and Video Analysis System (IVAS) regarding child sexual abuse material, for the purpose of comparing facial images provided to Europol under the provisions of the Europol Regulation;
  • Europol Malware Analysis Solution (EMAS);
  • Computer Forensics Network (CFN), to be replaced by the New Forensic Environment (NFE) in line with the guidance of the European Data Protection Supervisor (EDPS) under the Europol Regulation."

No further information is provided.

Europol uses Palantir's 'Gotham' software for "operational analysis" purposes. iBase is a software tool produced by IBM "that enables collaborative teams of analysts to capture, control and analyze multi-source data in security-rich workgroup environments"

See: Europol reply to written questions from the Member of the European Parliament (MEP), Mr Patrick Breyer, to the Joint Parliamentary Scrutiny Group (JPSG) (3 August 2021, pdf)