Les limites de la transparence algorithmique

Fri, 06 Feb 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Cet article en anglais est fondé sur une présentation donnée il y quelques mois lors de la Conférence internationale « Algorithmic transparency and the digital rule of law » organisée à l’école de droit de Sciences Po Paris. Merci à Lucas Anjos et Rebecca Mignot-Mahdavi pour l’invitation.

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In the face of concerns raised by AI systems in recent years, transparency has emerged as a central governance principle, enshrined in regulations from France’s Digital Republic Law to the EU AI Act. This talk examines the practical enforcement of algorithmic transparency provisions through action-research conducted by La Quadrature du Net, a French digital rights organization. Drawing on five years of Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests targeting surveillance algorithms deployed by French public authorities, we document systematic enforcement failures that render transparency requirements largely symbolic. Our findings suggest that transparency operates primarily as a legitimizing device for algorithmic governance rather than as an effective accountability mechanism.

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Les limites de la transparence algorithmique

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