Canada has a mosaic of federal laws forming its legal framework for citizens' data protection. The Privacy Act regulates how the federal government handles personal information, while the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) covers how businesses handle personal information. Other federal laws target specific information, such as the Bank Act of 1871, while provincial laws contain provisions for the confidentiality tied to credit unions and credit reporting.

According to the Broadcasting Act the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission, 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 Canada does not mandate functional or accounting separation for operators with significant market power (SMP) in the telecom market.

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

It is reported that passive sharing of infrastructure in the telecom market is not mandated, but it is practiced in the fixed sector (to a lesser extent than in the mobile sector, based on commercial agreements) and in the mobile sector (based on commercial agreements and based on a regulatory mandate).

According to the Telecommunications Act of 1993, Canada maintains a 46.7% limit on foreign ownership of certain existing suppliers of facilities-based telecommunication services, including the cable television industry, a major competitor for Internet access services. In 2012, Canada made a small change to this regime by allowing foreign investment of more than 46.7% in suppliers with less than 10% market share, per section 16 of the Act.

Saskatchewan Telecommunications is the only government-owned company in the Canadian telecommunications market. The company is 100% owned and controlled by Her Majesty the Queen in the Right of the Province of Saskatchewan as per Section 5 of the Saskatchewan Telecommunications Act. According to its statutes, foreign direct investment is not allowed in this company.

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

In Canada, there is no federal trade secrets act or equivalent statute. Trade secret law is instead based on common law, or in the case of Quebec, civil law, principles enforced in the courts through claims including torts, such as breaches of contract or confidence. There are also relevant dispositions in Canada's Criminal Code. Unlike for some other types of intellectual property, there is no formal process for protecting a trade secret. The protection of a trade secret requires the following, at a minimum: that the information has commercial value, that the information is secret, that the information has been subject to reasonable measures by the business to ensure that it remains secret.
Courts considering whether information is a trade secret, whether an action involves the misuse of a trade secret and how to compensate an owner of a trade secret for its misuse, look at factors including the following: the measures taken to maintain secrecy, the value of the information, the cost in money or time of creating or developing the information, the ease with which the information could be acquired or developed by others independently, the degree to which the owner regards and treats the information as confidential, the degree to which the recipient regards and treats the information as confidential, whether the recipient ought to have known that the information was confidential, whether misuse of the information resulted in detriment to the owner.

Canada has a clear regime of copyright exceptions that follows fair dealing, which enables the lawful use of copyrighted work by others without obtaining permission. Art. 29 of the Copyright Modernization Act establishes exceptions to fair dealing with results for news reporting, criticism, or comment. An intermediary is exempt from copyright infringement if the work is used for research, private study, education, parody, or satire.

There are reports that copyright is not adequately enforced online in Canada. The International Intellectual Property Alliance (IIPA) has criticized Canada for its lacking anti-piracy enforcement, mainly because it offers a home to many pirate sites. The IIPA also characterized Canada as a pro-piracy country in general because of the very high download pirated rates per capita. Moreover, the Canadian “notice and notice” system requires service providers to retain records on the identity of subscribers whose accounts have been used for unauthorized file sharing or other infringing behaviors; however, "receiving such notices lacks any meaningful consequences under the Canadian system." In addition, the rate of unlicensed software installation in the country was reportedly 22% in 2017 (above the 16% rate of North American countries), for an estimated commercial value of unlicensed software of USD 819 million.

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

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

The Investment Canada Act has regulated foreign investment in Canada since 1985. Foreign investors must notify the Canadian Government when acquiring a controlling interest in an existing Canadian business or starting a new business. Generally, investments above those thresholds are assessed based on whether they are of “net benefit” to Canada and must wait for affirmative approval before implementation. The thresholds in question vary depending on whether the investor is a state-owned enterprise or a private firm, as well as if Canada maintains a free trade agreement with the country in question, as it does with Israel, the United States, and the European Union.
Since March 2022, with respect to investments by direct or indirect Russian investors, the Minister of Industry (or the Minister of Canadian Heritage, as regards investments in Canada’s cultural sector) can find the acquisition of control of a Canadian business to be of net benefit to Canada on an exceptional basis only, under the Investment Canada Act. On the other hand, with respect to national security reviews, should it be determined that an investment, regardless of its value, has ties, direct or indirect, to an individual or entity associated with, controlled by or subject to influence by the Russian state, this would support a finding by the Minister that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the investment could be injurious to Canada’s national security as set out in Part IV.1 of the Investment Canada Act.

According to the Telecommunications Act of 1993, Canada maintains a 46.7% limit on foreign ownership of certain existing suppliers of facilities-based telecommunication services, including the cable television industry, a major competitor for Internet access services. In 2012, Canada allowed foreign investment of more than 46.7% in suppliers with less than 10% market share, per Section 16 of the Act.