European investigative services have never sent so many data requests, according to an annual report from Europol. Connection protocols and IP addresses are the most important data types. Content data is less important.

European law enforcement agencies sent fourteen percent more requests for information about people to technology providers such as Google and Meta in 2022 compared to 2021. In total, law enforcement authorities requested data 211,933 times. This emerges from the annual report Sirius European Union Digital Evidence Situation Report from Europol. Additionally, requests for information are more successful than ever. 73 percent of requests were answered, compared to 69 percent in 2022.

This report states that connection protocols and IP addresses can provide the most valuable information for European investigative services. These logs contain information about the date, time and IP address used. The data usually belongs to so-called metadata.

Content data is relatively unimportant

Content data, on the other hand, seems to be less important in research. This is notable because it undermines the fact that services require gaps in end-to-end encryption. National and international lawmakers regularly protest against such encryption, often with the (false) argument that they want to protect a vulnerable group. Europol data shows that only sixteen percent of investigations required substantive data.

Content data has traditionally been more difficult to obtain. For example, the contents of your WhatsApp or Signal messages are encrypted so that investigative services cannot request them from the provider. The metadata (who sent what, when and to whom) is available. Furthermore, it is noticeable that location data is viewed as even less relevant for investigations.

The Europol report also describes which countries send the most data requests to service providers. The leader here is Germany with more than 100,000 inquiries, followed by France with almost 30,000 inquiries. For Belgium it is around 5,000. Google is the most important player, the company received almost 110,000 requests to share data with investigative services.

Cross-border cooperation

The Sirius project seeks to simplify law enforcement access to electronic evidence across borders in the EU. More than half of all criminal investigations today involve requests for electronic evidence that cross national borders.

Sirius provides standardized processes and policies across services and providers to facilitate the exchange of requests and information. “The Sirius project is a valuable tool for anyone interested in the use of electronic evidence in criminal investigations,” says Didier Reynders, EU Commissioner for Justice (Belgium – Renew).