According to Art. 25.2(10) of Law No. 94-V, an owner and/or operator of a personal data database, which is a legal entity, should appoint a person responsible for organising the processing of personal data (this requirement does not apply to the activities of courts). According to Art. 25.3, such a person is entrusted with the following duties:
- Exercise internal control over observance by the owner and/or operator of a personal data database and its employees of Kazakh law requirements in relation to personal data and its protection;
- Inform the employees of an owner and/or operator of the provisions of Kazakh law with respect to processing and protection of personal data;
- Exercise control over receipt and processing of applications from personal data subjects or their legal representatives.

In July 2019, the government introduced the Qaznet Trust Certificate under the Law on Communications, a machine-in-the-middle (MITM) technology that enables it to monitor users’ online activities. The certificate requires every internet user in the country to install a backdoor, allowing the government to conduct surveillance. This allows the government to conduct a so-called “man-in-the-middle” attack, which allows the government to intercept every secure connection in the country and see web browsing history, usernames and passwords, and even secure and HTTPS-encrypted traffic.
KazakhTelecom, the country’s largest telecommunications company, has said that citizens are “obliged” to install a “national security certificate” on every device, including desktops and mobile devices.
It is reported that the commentators and experts inside the country and abroad almost unanimously consider the certificate a government-initiated technology for the interception of encrypted user traffic via MITM attacks. Some of the 37 websites that University of Michigan researchers identified as targets of the certificate included Facebook, Gmail, Instagram, Mail.ru, OK, Twitter, VK, and YouTube, suggesting that its purpose was to “surveil users on social networking and communication sites.”
On 21 August 2019, Mozilla and Google simultaneously announced that their Firefox and Chrome web browsers would not accept the government-issued certificate, even if installed manually by users. Later, Apple announced that it would make similar changes to its Safari browser and that the certificate would not be installed. After this, the requirement for the installation of the certificate was postponed.
While required, the certificate appeared to affect a fraction of connections passing through the country’s largest ISP, Kazakhtelecom. This means that some, but not all, of the Kazakh Internet population was affected.
In December 2020, Kazakhstan once again tried to enforce the installation of the certificate. However, the enforcement once again halted after the protest of the major internet browsers. Although not enforced, the provisions for mandatory installation of the certificate remain in Kazakhstan's regulations.

A basic legal framework on intermediary liability for copyright infringement is absent in Kazakhstan's law and jurisprudence. However, the Agreement on Enhanced Partnership between the EU and the Republic of Kazakhstan, signed in March 2016, provides a safe harbour to European companies under several conditions. According to the agreement, an information intermediary is not liable, for example, if it does not initiate the transfer, if the end-user always takes the initiative, if it does not choose the recipient of the transfer if it does not choose or change the information contained in the transfer if it complies with the conditions of access to information, observes rules for updating information, does not interfere with the lawful use of generally recognised technologies, immediately deletes information or stops access to it, after receiving a notice.

A basic legal framework on intermediary liability beyond copyright infringement is absent in Kazakhstan's law and jurisprudence. However, the Agreement on Enhanced Partnership between the EU and the Republic of Kazakhstan, signed in March 2016, provides a safe harbour to European companies under several conditions. According to the agreement, an information intermediary is not liable, for example, if it does not initiate the transfer, if the end-user always takes the initiative, if it does not choose the recipient of the transfer, if it does not choose or change the information contained in the transfer if it complies with the conditions of access to information, observes rules for updating information, does not interfere with the lawful use of generally recognised technologies, immediately deletes information or stops access to it, after receiving a notice.

It is reported that the telecommunication companies are required to purchase and install equipment related to the state’s System for Operational Investigative Measures (SORM) and to cover costs related to the database of International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) codes and to pay regular fees to the State Radio Frequency Service, which is the IMEI database operator. These obligations may deter new players from entering the market.

Pursuant to the Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan "On Licensing" and the Law on Permissions and Notifications, the companies providing telecommunications services require an operating license from the Ministry of Digital Development, Innovation, and Aerospace. It is reported that all telecommunications operators are legally obliged, as part of the licensing requirement, to connect their channels to a public network controlled by KazakhTelecom.

According to Art. 23.6.7 of the Law on National Security, it shall be prohibited that foreigners, stateless persons, and foreign legal entities to directly and (or) indirectly own, use, dispose of and (or) manage cumulatively in excess of 49% of the voting shares, as well as stakes, units of a legal entity engaged in telecommunications as a long-distance and (or) international telecommunications operator, possessing land (cable, including fibre optic, radio relay) communication lines with no positive decision of the Government of Kazakhstan based on the opinion of the authorised body regulating the field of communications, agreed with the national security agencies. It is reported that, in practice, foreign investors must obtain a government waiver for the acquisition of more than 49% of shares in a company providing telecommunication services.

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

In accordance with subparagraph 4-1 of Art. 7 of Law No. 544, the Minister of National Economy of Kazakhstan ordered the approval of the Rules of Domestic Trade (Order No. 264). Arts. 105-1 and 106-1 of the Rules mandate e-commerce sellers to indicate their BIN (business identification number), address of business operations on the territory of Kazakhstan and mobile telephone number registered in Kazakhstan in order to operate in the country. Additional information on this requirement is found in Annex 3-10 of Order No. 4.

Kazakhstan has a telecommunications authority: The Telecommunications Committee of the Ministry of Digital Development, Innovations and Aerospace Industry of the Republic of Kazakhstan. However, it is reported that this entity's decision-making process is not fully independent of the government.

According to Art. 38 of the Patent law of the Republic of Kazakhstan, foreign individuals, foreign legal entities and stateless persons residing in the Republic of Kazakhstan enjoy the same rights as Kazakhstani citizens. However, under Article 36.5 of the Patent Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan, natural persons residing outside the Republic of Kazakhstan or foreign legal entities shall exercise their rights as patent applicants and patentees, as well as the rights of interested persons in the authorised body and its organisations, through local patent attorneys. Pursuant to Art. 1 of the Law, patent agents are citizens of the Republic of Kazakhstan who, in accordance with the legislation of the Republic of Kazakhstan, have the right to represent natural and legal persons before the authorised body and expert agency.

Art. 56-1 of the Law on Informatization requires that internet resources with ".kz" and ".қaz" domains must be hosted on hardware and software complexes located in Kazakhstan. In other words, an internet resource (website, web application, web service) using a ".kz" or ".қaz" domain must be hosted on a server (owned/rented/cloud hosted/VDS hosted/virtually hosted) in a data centre (server/office) located in Kazakhstan. The server must also be connected to a Kazakh internet provider and use a (dedicated or shared) Kazakhstan IP address.
A similar requirement has been in place since 2005, as established in Clauses 7 and 8 of the Regulations for the Allocation of Domain Space in the Kazakhstan Segment of the Internet. These clauses provided that an application for domain name registration may be refused or registration may be cancelled if the domain servers were not located inside Kazakhstan.

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

Paragraph 6-1 of Resolution No. 246 prohibited the storage of telecommunication subscriber information outside the country. The Resolution was repealed in July 2023.

Kazakhstan has a copyright regime under Law of the Republic of Kazakhstan No. 6-I of June 10, 1996, on Copyright and Related Rights. However, the exceptions do not follow the fair use or fair dealing model, therefore limiting the lawful use of copyrighted work by others. Arts. 18-27 list the exceptions, which include the quotation, in the original language or in translation, for scientific or for research, polemic, critical or informational purposes and to the extent justified by the intended purpose; the reproduction, broadcasting or communication to the public by cable of architectural works, photographic works or works of fine art permanently located in public; among others.