Created in 2020, the Pole of Expertise of Digital Regulation (PEReN) has submitted its first activity report covering the year 2021 to its ministers of trusteeship, Bruno Le Maire, Minister of Economy, Finance and Industrial Sovereignty and Digital, Rima Abdul Malak, Minister of Culture, and Jean-Noël Barrot, Deputy Minister for Digital Transition and Telecommunications.

The PEReN, a service with national competence attached to the Enterprise Directorate-General, is a centre of expertise in data science which can be used by the State departments and independent administrative authorities. Its mission is to analyse the functioning of digital platforms to enable competent authorities to adapt or implement regulations.

2021, a fast-growing activity and unprecedented coordination between regulators

In its first full year of operation, the PEReN was able to be quickly operational in 25 projects that it has been entrusted to meet the needs of its partners.

The PEReN thus came to support the regulators, striving to play a role of articulation and technical coordination. In 2021, he specifically:

- developed shared technical solutions : secure data exchange platform as part of the implementation of the ELAN law, API scraping data audit, smartphone application audit, technical analysis of the solution project Privacy Sandbox of Google;

- laid the groundwork for future digital platform regulation tools : analysis of «black box» algorithms, detection of viral content, anonymisation of personal data within the framework of the right to portability (GDPR), evaluation of the prevalence of bots on Twitter, exploratory study of the supply and consumption of videos on YouTube;

- helped to define recent European regulations : technical analysis of security issues in the opening of application stores (DMA), technical lighting on the interoperability of online services (DMA, DSA), contribution to the work on AI regulation.

In 2022, the momentum started to accelerate strongly, following the roadmap validated by the ministers responsible and of some sixty projects. Mobilizing a team of experts, doctors or engineers, with specialized and rare skills and knowledge in data science (algorithmic, machine learning/artificial intelligence, application programming), the PEReN has quickly established itself as a reference and coordinating actor within public authorities on all technical aspects of the regulation of digital platforms. It carries out all its projects on its own human and material resources, in a logic of sovereignty and capitalization of expertise within public authorities.

Nicolas Deffieux, Director of PEReN: Endowed with modest resources in view of its missions, the PEReN has, in less than two years, entered into an exceptional dynamic and has already had a concrete impact by allowing, on the one hand, a technical rebalancing with digital platforms, and on the other hand, unprecedented coordination between sector regulators.”

Find the 2021 activity report: https://www.peren.gouv.fr/rapports/Rapport_Activite_2021_PEReN_web.pdf

The PEReN 

A service with national competence, the PEReN pooles digital expertise to support government departments and independent authorities in their platform regulation missions. Under the joint authority of the Ministers responsible for the economy, communication and digital technologies, the PEReN reports to the Director-General for Enterprise for its administrative and financial management. Involving some 20 experts data scientistsThe PEReN produces tools, whether they are doctors or engineers with rare technical skills in data analysis, source code, processing and algorithmic auditing, studies and digital consulting while investing in exploratory or scientific research projects.

www.peren.gouv.fr/