Observatoire des Algorithmes Publics (ODAP) — France's Citizen-Led Public Algorithm Inventory

Article L.312-1-3 of France's Code des relations entre le public et l'administration has required public bodies to publish inventories of the algorithms behind their decisions since 2016. In practice the obligation went almost entirely unmet: by 2023 only France Travail (the employment agency) and two departments (Ille-et-Vilaine, Val-d'Oise) had published anything.

The Observatoire des algorithmes publics (ODAP) was founded in 2023 by researcher Soizic Pénicaud, designer Estelle Hary and sociologist Camille Girard-Chanudet to fill that gap from outside government. Each entry is documented twice, independently, and cross-checked collegially using public records and administrative responses, covering machine-learning systems, rule-based tools, and everything in between; the dataset is published openly on data.gouv.fr.

ODAP's first inventory (November 2024) catalogued around 72 algorithms used by central administrations and state agencies, explicitly excluding local government and hospitals 'for now.' Its second edition (19 November 2025) expanded to 120 algorithms. Of the 24 algorithms subject to the CRPA's legal transparency obligation, only 6 (25%) actually complied; only 18 of the 120 algorithms (15%) disclosed any budget information.

ODAP is explicit that it does not claim exhaustive or fully objective coverage, given what it calls the 'great opacity' still surrounding public algorithms in France. As a civil-society substitute for an unenforced legal duty, it demonstrates the scale of the gap more than it closes it.