Who are we?
PEReN is placed under the joint authority of the French Ministers of Economy, Culture and Digital Technology. Its missions and organisation are outlined in the decree of the 31st of August, 2020.
Our mission
Today, understanding data and its environment is an imperative to understand how digital platforms work, and set or adapt their regulation. PEReN was created to answer this need and form a centre of expertise in data science that can provide technical support and guidance to state administrations in need.
More specifically, PEReN can be mobilised in two types of situations:
- It can assist services with regulatory powers: in that case, the framework of intervention of PEReN is defined by a convention, which encompasses the scope of regulatory powers of the authority or administration in question, particularly concerning the authorisation to collect data or to request the assistance of external agents ;
- PEReN can also provide its expertise in research work commissioned by state administrations by conducting exploratory or scientific studies: in that case, PEReN acts as a research centre. In particular, it has a partnership on certain subjects with Inria (National Institute for Research in Digital Science and Technology) and more particularly its pole REGALIA, which specialises in the study of algorithms (to find out more about this collaboration and other academic projects, see projects).
Reference texts
- Decree no. 2020-1102 of August 31, 2020 creating a service with a national scope called "Pôle d'expertise de la régulation numérique" (PEReN) ;
- LAW No. 2021-1382 of October 25, 2021 on the regulation and protection of access to cultural works in the digital age (Article 36);
- Decree no. 2022-603 of April 21, 2022 establishing the list of independent administrative and public authorities that can call on the support of the Digital Regulation Expertise Unit and relating to the data collection methods implemented by this service in the context of its experimental activities;
- Decision of July 1, 2022 on the creation by the Pôle d'Expertise de la Régulation Numérique (PEReN) of an automated processing of personal data implemented as part of the experimentation activities.
Digital platforms?
PEReN’s mission is to conduct studies on digital platforms (as defined by the Article L111-7 of the French Consumer Code). By doing so, it may be required to collect and process personal data, but in the sole aim of fulfilling its objective, through conventions signed with the authorities PEReN is assisting. These conventions guarantee a GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) compliance and precisely define the authorisations granted to PEReN.
Additionally, PEReN is actively involved in the field of personal data protection: for example, it is currently working on the implementation of tools to anonymise and minimise data collected in studies (for more information, see projects).