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In 1978, one of the first systems for the protection of personal data was established under French law. Thirty years on, the time has come for a broad assessment of how far the CNIL, the French data protection authority at the core of the system, has succeeded in regulating the use of personal data, but also of the main difficulties it has encountered. Some branches of industry proved recalcitrant, politics intervened from the mid-1990s to lower the level of protection, public opinion slowly began to lay claim to data protection rights, while social representations of information processes became increasingly positive.