According to the Telecommunications (Service Provider — Identity Checks for Prepaid Mobile Carriage Services) Determination 2017, telecommunication companies must identify their customer when that customer wants to activate a prepaid mobile service. According to Part 4 of the law, to activate a new prepaid mobile service, customers need to give their telecommunication company their name, date of birth, and home address (or business name and address if acting on behalf of a business). Proof of ID is also necessary.

The Criminal Code Amendment (Sharing of Abhorrent Violent Material) Act 2019 subjects Internet service providers and content providers to criminal penalties for the failure to report or remove "abhorrent violent material" that the providers have reasonable grounds to believe records or streams abhorrent violent conduct in Australia (Section 434.33-34). The Act has been largely criticised for its ambiguous terms such as "terrorist act," "expeditiously," and who will be prosecuted within the business organisation if found to be in violation of the Act. It is reported that the Act, because of its vague standards and high penalties, would incentivise rational service providers to err on the side of taking down more material than necessary. Although the Act does not establish a blanket content monitoring obligation, it does stipulate that in cases involving "abhorrent violent conduct," Internet hosts are expected to exert reasonable efforts to monitor and promptly deactivate such materials.

Australia enacted an Online Safety Act that places additional responsibilities on digital platforms and internet service providers (ISPs) to monitor and remove harmful content posted on their services. Specifically, the Act reduces the time a site owner or ISP has to remove harmful content from 48 hours to 24 hours when served with a removal notice by the eSafety Commissioner. It also provides the eSafety Commissioner additional information collection powers and the power to require ISPs to disable access to material depicting violent conduct for a limited period during “crisis situations.”

The general standard-setting process in Australia is collaborative and transparent. It includes a wide range of stakeholders (international, private/public sector) and the treatment of intellectual property (IP) issues. For example, the Technical Committee, which is responsible for developing new standards, includes representatives from government agencies, businesses, and industry organisations and associations. However, the process does not seem transparent when it comes to electrical products.
To regulate electrical products, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMC) derive technical standards from the Standards Alliance, a non-government and not-for-profit standards organisation, if not from international standard bodies or national regulatory agencies. In developing standards, the Standards Alliance forms technical committees consisting of technical, business, academic, government, and community experts as representatives from nominating organisations. According to the Structure and Operation of Standardisation Committees (SG-002) and Nominating organisation Guide, to be eligible as a nominating organisation, it must have its headquarters based in Australia, have an Australian membership base, and represent a constituency, among other requirements. SG-002 was published in 2001 and recently amended in September 2020.

Australia has joined several agreements with binding commitments to open transfers of data across borders. These include: the Singapore-Australia Free Trade Agreement (SAFTA, Chapter 14, Art. 13), the Australia-Peru Free Trade Agreement (Art. 13.11), the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP, Art. 14.11), the Indonesia - Australia Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (Art. 13.11), the Australia-Hong Kong Free Trade Agreement and associated Investment Agreement [Article 11.7(2) and 11.15(1)], and the Australia-United Kingdom Free Trade Agreement [14.10(2)].

The Privacy Act 1988 provides a comprehensive regime of data protection in Australia. The Privacy Act, which includes a set of Australian Privacy Principles, provides general personal data protection requirements and provisions, including the right to access and to be informed. Initially, the Act stipulated guidelines for how Australian government agencies should manage personal information. Subsequently, in 2000, the Privacy Amendment (Private Sector) Act extended these provisions to certain private sector organisations.
Sector-specific privacy regulations, particularly concerning telecommunications, are addressed by the Telecommunications Act 1997 and the Telecommunications (Interception and Access) Act 1979. Additional protections for healthcare information are provided under the My Health Records Act 2012 and the Healthcare Identifiers Act 2010. Businesses operating in industries such as financial services and gambling are required to adhere to the Anti-Money Laundering and Counter-Terrorism Financing Act 2006 and its accompanying rules. Furthermore, the Security of Critical Infrastructure Act 2018 applies to entities that own, operate, or hold direct interests in assets across various sectors, including communications, energy, defence, financial services, transport, data processing or storage, supermarket and grocery supply chains, health and medical services, education, and space.

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

Australia has a clear regime of copyright exceptions under the Copyright Act that follows the fair dealing model, which enables the lawful use of copyrighted work by others without obtaining permission. The list of exceptions includes research or study, criticism or review, parody or satire, reporting news, enabling a person with a disability to access the material, and professional advice by a lawyer, patent attorney or trademark attorney (Division 3).

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

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

Australia lacks a comprehensive framework in place that provides effective protection of trade secrets, but there are limited measures addressing some issues related to them. The Corporations Act 2001 provides that a person who obtains information because they are, or have been, a director or other officer or employee of a corporation must not improperly use the information. Similarly, the Competition and Consumer Act 2010 states that a bargain between two parties never requires disclosure of a trade secret. In addition, a common method to claim for breach of contractual and statutory obligations of confidence related to unlawful disclosure of trade secrets is the use of an equitable action for breach of confidence.

According to Art. 34 of the Telecommunications Act 1997, telecommunications carriers have statutory rights of access to other carriers' towers and ducts, but such access is not mandated. Passive infrastructure sharing is practised in Australia in the mobile sector: co-location is negotiated on a commercial basis. Carriers have regulated rights of access to towers owned by other carriers for the purposes of providing carriage services. The Telecommunications Act 1997 provides for carriers to provide other carriers with access to telecommunications transmission towers, the sites of telecommunications transmission towers and eligible underground facilities. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has made a code which sets out conditions that are to be complied with in relation to the provision of access.
In addition, passive infrastructure sharing is also practised in Australia in the fixed sector: the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has declared the following services: - line sharing service (LSS) - local carriage service (LCS) - fixed originating access service (FOAS) - fixed terminating access service (FTAS) - unconditioned local loop service (ULLS) - wholesale line rental (WLR) - wholesale ADSL service (WADSL). Once a service is declared, a network owner must provide access to the service upon request.

According to Section 8BG of the Telstra Corporations Act 1991 (as amended by Act No. 53 of 1999), foreign ownership of Telstra (the incumbent telecommunication company) is limited to 35% and individual foreign investors are only allowed to own up to 5%.

According to the National Broadband Network Companies Act 2011 (Subdivision A, Division 2, Part 3), the Commonwealth must retain full ownership of National Broadband Network Co (NBN Co). In addition, this ownership structure could be terminated only in limited circumstances (Subdivision B).

National Broadband Network Co (NBN Co) is a wholly government-owned enterprise tasked with designing, building, deploying, and operating a high-speed (internet) access network across Australia.