Privacy enhancing technologies (PETs) enable data sharing and collaboration in the digital space in a way that respects privacy, ensuring that users have confidence that their data is protected. However, PETs can also be used to hide traces of criminal activities, most of which today are carried out via, or have some link to, digital communications technology. For this reason, lawful access to electronic evidence has become one of the most critical issues for European law enforcement, as it seeks to ensure safety and security while balancing this with the fundamental right to privacy.

This report presents the results of a joint horizon scanning exercise carried out by the EU Policy Lab at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (JRC), and Europol, the EU law enforcement cooperation agency. It contributes to broader JRC efforts to support the European Commission’s political priority, the ‘New Era for European Defence and Security’, by anticipating future technological developments. The aim of the exercise was to assess emerging PETs that could help or, conversely, hinder the future work of European law enforcement. The report underscores the importance of several PETs that experts deem crucial for this purpose.

These technologies have the potential to be either leveraged by law enforcement to enhance their operations or be exploited by criminals, depending on how they are developed and used in the future. The report also examines related complex regulatory frameworks and contextual factors that influence the development and deployment of these technologies. In light of the development of new encryption methods and other related enabling technologies such as artificial intelligence, this report also discusses new ways for law enforcement agencies to securely exchange information and integrate these technologies in the future activities.

The world of hybrid threats presents a complex and ever-evolving landscape where traditional and non-traditional methods intertwine. With the rise of these multifaceted challenges, safeguarding the integrity of European democracies has become an urgent imperative. Initiatives like EU-HYBNET aim to enhance preparedness and to establish a European network to counter hybrid threats.

This study considers the interpenetration of criminal and lawful economic activities, with new technologies and unregulated terrains offering new opportunities for new types of interpenetration. We explore the possibility of differentiating, regulating, and controlling criminal and legal activities and markets, the level of control technically feasible and socially and economically desirable, among other relevant issues.  We analyse the following issues, among others:

• Is there a possibility of differentiating and controlling criminal and legal markets and economic activities? 
• What level of control is technically feasible and (at the same time) socially and economically desirable?  
• To some extent is it possible to establish the lawful origins of funds used in every transaction?  
  
  The study is relevant for several reasons:
• Crimes have wide-ranging, major impacts on the economy, society and environment, when connected to lawful economic activities.Quite often these connections (“interpenetrations”) are not detected  - or not reported for various reasons.
• Economic hardship and crises are likely to reinforce the incentives for committing criminal economic activities.
• New technologies might offer new opportunities for new or “refined” criminal economic activities.
• Economic criminals are often innovative and enter unregulated terrains (e.g.,some commons, metaverse, etc.).
• Lack of resources and skills to fight economic crime is a major hurdle.