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.
Source: The Practical Limits of Algorithmic Transparency: Lessons from France · Félix Tréguer