Art. 86 of Ordinance No. 11-023/P-RM establishes penalties for the export or import of means of cryptology without authorisation, with a penalty of imprisonment of six months to one year and a fine of 10,000,000 CFA francs (USD 16,300 approx) to 20,000,000 CFA francs (USD 32,700 approx). In addition, the court may prohibit the offender from applying for authorisation for a maximum of two years and order the confiscation of the cryptology means.

It is reported that the de minimis threshold, that is the minimum value of goods below which customs do not charge duties, is USD 20, below the 200 USD threshold recommended by the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC).

The operators of telecommunications networks open to the public and telecommunications/ICT service providers are required at the time of subscription to proceed with the identification of subscribers under (Art. 9) of Ordinance No. 11-023/P-RM of 28 September 2011 relating to telecommunications and information and communication technologies.

Several cases of web content blocking have been reported in Mali. These include:
- Following a demonstration in 2016, it was reported that access to social networks (Twitter and Facebook) was interrupted. Viber and WhatsApp also experienced disruptions;
- Social media was reportedly shut down in June 2018 following demonstrations;
- In July 2018, during the presidential elections, it was reported that social networks were inaccessible. A WhatsApp and Twitter block was reported, along with two circumvention tool sites (guardianproject.info and anonymizer.ru);
- Social media and messaging were partially blocked for five days in July 2020 amid protests. Social networking platforms Twitter and Facebook, as well as messaging apps WhatsApp and Messenger, were restricted by Mali's leading private operator, Orange Mali. The cellular network of national telecom operator Malitel also restricted Instagram. Filtering was also comprehensive, with indications of near-total impact. The Internet measures were implemented at the ISP level, with each company applying them differently;
- The French broadcasters RFI and France 24 were definitively banned in April 2022.

The indicator "6.2.4 - Government Internet shut down in practice" of the V-Dem Dataset, which measures whether the government has the technical capacity to actively make internet service cease, thus interrupting domestic access to the internet or whether the government has decided to do so, has a score of 2 in Mali for the year 2023. This corresponds to "The government shut down domestic access to the Internet several times this year."

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

Mali does not have comprehensive trade secret legislation. Yet, there are provisions addressing disclosure, acquisition or use of confidential information in the course of industrial or commercial activities by third parties in Art. 6 of Annex VIII of the Bangui Agreement ratified by 17 French-speaking States, including Mali, since 2002.

It is reported that there is an obligation for passive infrastructure sharing in Mali to deliver telecom services to end users. It is practised in both the mobile and fixed sectors based on commercial agreements.

The Telecommunications Company of Mali (SOTELMA), or Sotelma-Malitel, has been privatised. It operates under the brand Moov Africa Malitel, whose services are landline, mobile, Internet and electronic money (Mobicash). The supplier (Maroc Telecom Group) holds 51% and the Malian State (49%) of participation.

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

Mali has not appended the World Trade Organization (WTO) Telecom Reference Paper to its schedule of commitments.

It is reported that the Malian Authority for the Regulation of Telecommunications and Posts (AMRTP), the executive authority for the supervision and administration of services in the telecommunications sector, is independent from the government in the decision-making process.

According to Art. 11 of Law No. 2013-015, Mali authorises the transfer of personal data to a foreign State when:
- The receiving State ensures a sufficient level of protection of individuals, indicated by the Authority in charge of the protection of personal data, due to its domestic legislation or commitments made at the international level and that these measures are effectively implemented.
- By decision of the Authority in charge of the protection of personal data, when the transfer and processing by the recipient of the personal data ensures a sufficient level of protection of privacy, as well as of the fundamental rights and freedoms of individuals, in particular, due to the contractual clauses or internal rules to which it is subject.

Pursuant to Art. 9 of Law No. 2013-015, the processing of sensitive data, understood as any data of a personal nature relating to religious, philosophical, political, or trade union opinions or activities, sex, race, health, social measures, prosecutions, and criminal or administrative charges, is prohibited. However, sensitive data may be processed with appropriate safeguards defined by the Authority in charge of personal data protection if the data is necessary or used to safeguard the person's life, used by a non-profit organisation, or in the context of a judicial action.
Processing of personal data is defined as any operation or set of operations carried out by means of automated or non-automated processes and applied to data, such as collecting, exploiting, recording, organising, storing, adapting, modifying, retrieving, saving, copying, consulting, using, communicating by transmission, disseminating or otherwise making available, bringing together or interconnecting, as well as blocking, encrypting, deleting or destroying personal data.

Mali has not joined any free trade agreement committing to open cross-border data flow transfers.