The Investigatory Powers Act 2016 gives the UK government, including the police, security services, and other public bodies, the power to intercept targeted or bulk communications as well as collect bulk communications data. The Data Retention and Acquisitions Regulations 2018 amended certain pieces of the 2016 Act, raising the threshold for data interception or collection to apply to serious crimes. However, a court order is not necessary in all cases for public bodies to intercept communications data.

Section 4 of the Investigatory Powers Act 2016 gives the UK police, security services, and other public bodies the power to require telecommunications companies to retain communications data for any citizen. Retention notices cannot require data be retained for more than 12 months, and these notices can only be issued under specific circumstance relating to national security and serious crime.

The United Kingdom has joined agreements with binding commitments to open transfers of data across borders: the Trade and Cooperation Agreement between the European Union and the European Atomic Energy Community, of the One Part, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, of the Other Part (Art. 201), the Agreement between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Japan for a Comprehensive Economic Partnership (Art. 8.84), the Australia-United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement (Art. 14.10), the Free Trade Agreement between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and New Zealand (Art. 15.14) and the Digital Economy Agreement between the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Republic of Singapore (Art. 8.61-F)

The Data Protection Act 2018 (DPA 2018), which replaced the Data Protection Act 1998, incorporates the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) which strictly governs the processing and sharing of personal data. The UK GDPR came into force on January 1, 2021 following the UK's official departure from the EU. In the UK a child can consent to the transfer of data at age 13, whereas this age of consent is 16 in the EU. There are further differences regarding how personal data is defined (the UK has a more limited definition), processing of criminal data, data subject rights, and administrative fines.

Under Art. 44 of the United Kingdom General Data Protection Regulation (UK GDPR), it is required that any international data transfer of personal data to a third country or international organisation should only take place under certain conditions and/or with certain safeguards in place. These are further set out in Arts. 45 to 49 of the UK GDPR.
The 2018 Data Protection Act allows personal data to flow from the UK to third countries on the basis of an adequacy decision, appropriate safeguards (such as standard data protection clauses and binding corporate rules), or other conditions specified under the Data Protection Act. The UK has granted adequacy to countries within the European Economic Area, countries covered by European Commission adequacy decisions (as of 31 December 2020), and South Korea (as of 23 November 2022).

According to Section 388 of the Companies Act 2006, if accounting records are kept at a place outside the United Kingdom, accounts and returns must be sent to, and kept at, a place in the United Kingdom, and must at all times be open to such inspection. In addition, records must be sent back to the UK at intervals of not more than six months.

The United Kingdom has appended the World Trade Organization (WTO) Telecom Reference Paper to its schedule of commitments.

It is reported that the Office of Communications (Ofcom), the executive authority for the supervision and administration of services in the telecommunications sector, is independent from the government in the decision-making process.

It is reported that the UK mandates functional and accounting separation for operators with significant market power (SMP) in the telecom market.

In 2020, the UK government invested USD 500 million in OneWeb, a company that delivers broadband satellite internet service through mid-orbit satellite constellations. While the UK is not the largest shareholder in OneWeb, it is reported to have a golden share of 45% in the company, effectively giving it control over who has access to the network. The UK government has stated that OneWeb will help deliver on commitments to super-fast broadband provision across the UK and will help the UK Space Agency improve upon current GPS navigation capabilities.

It is reported that there is no obligation for passive infrastructure sharing in the country to deliver telecom services to end users. However, it is practiced in the mobile sector and in the fixed sector based on commercial agreements. Moreover, Directive 2014/61/EU on measures to reduce the cost of deploying high-speed electronic communications networks is implemented in the United Kingdom via the Building (Amendment) Regulations 2016 and The Communications (Access to Infrastructure) Regulations 2016.

In the United Kingdom, trade secrets are protected from unjustified use and disclosure by common law – under the law of confidence – and the Trade Secrets Regulations of 2018. The regulations implement Directive (EU) 2016/943 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 8 June 2016 on the protection of undisclosed know-how and business information (trade secrets) in the United Kingdom. They establish broad criteria for information that qualifies for protection, strict and non time-limited protections, and clear sanctions against unlawful disclosure.

The UK has ratified the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Performances and Phonograms Treaty.

The UK has ratified the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Copyright Treaty.

The UK is a party to the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).