Careem

Is Careem safe to use?

Careem is a reasonable choice for rides and deliveries across the Gulf, with one clear weak spot. No privacy or consumer regulator has fined it that we could find, and a ride in the app records the captain, the car and the route. But Careem's 2018 breach exposed the details of about 14 million riders, it took three months to tell them, and today's app shares contact, location and device data with advertising partners. We score it 49/100, close to Grab and Uber and below Gojek.

Who runs Careem now

Careem is no longer one company. Uber bought it in 2020, and in April 2023 agreed to sell a majority stake in Careem Technologies, the business behind the everything app, to the UAE telecoms group e&. The deal completed in December 2023. Uber's 2023 annual report says it kept about 42% and two board seats.

Uber kept the ride-hailing business itself. Careem's ride privacy notice, updated in March 2026, says Careem Rides is offered by Uber Technologies, Inc. in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, Morocco and Iraq. Careem Technologies controls your account data and everything else in the app, such as food, groceries and Careem Pay. Uber controls ride data. The two share data with each other. In practice that means two privacy notices and two controllers for one app.

What Careem collects and shares

The App Store label lists identifiers and usage data as used to track you across other companies' apps. It also links your purchases, location, contact info, identifiers and usage data to you for Careem's own advertising.

Google Play's data safety section goes further on sharing. It says Careem may share device IDs, approximate location, your name, email address, phone number, user IDs and app interactions with other companies, and lists advertising or marketing among the purposes for most of them. Voice recordings and in-app messages are shared for app functionality.

The privacy notice for Careem Technologies, effective May 2025, explains how. Advertisers can run campaigns inside the app and get data on which ads you saw and acted on. Careem also works with audience networks "such as Epsilon" to show you ads off the platform, and may share information that helps them personalise ads. Device data can include the list of installed applications. Identity checks may use photos or videos through facial verification. Retention is open-ended: data is kept "for the period of time necessary", and after a deletion request it is erased "or archived from active use".

The 2018 breach

On 23 April 2018 Careem said intruders had accessed a system holding the names, email addresses, phone numbers and trip data of everyone who had signed up before 14 January 2018. That was about 14 million riders and 558,800 captains in 13 countries. Careem said there was no evidence that passwords or card numbers were taken, and no sign of fraud. It had known since January, so riders learned of it about three months later. Uber's annual report says Careem notified the relevant regulators. We found no fine.

The breach is now eight years old, inside our ten-year window, and Careem has published nothing on what it changed beyond saying it "strengthened" its systems. Its security page describes a 24/7 fraud team and masked card numbers, but we found no public bug bounty or vulnerability disclosure policy. Those two facts hold security at 50.

Rides and age limits

Careem offers the expected tools: captain and car details, in-app calls, and trip sharing. It publishes no count of assaults, crashes or harassment on its rides. One court record shows the kind of problem riders raise. In 2019 a consumer court in Karachi ordered Careem to pay Rs 50,000 after a captain drove recklessly, used abusive language and left the passengers halfway through the trip.

The App Store rates Careem 4+, but both of its privacy notices say the platform may only be used by people over 18. The rating gives parents no warning about a wallet, chat with drivers and rides with strangers.

How to use Careem more safely

1. Refuse tracking when iOS asks, and turn off marketing messages in the app's settings.
2. Check the captain's photo, car and plate before you get in, and share the trip with someone you trust.
3. Treat any message asking for your password, card details or one-time code as phishing, and report it through the Help tab.
4. Do not let children set up their own account; the terms require users to be over 18.
5. If you stop using Careem, ask for deletion, knowing some data may be archived rather than erased.

How we scored it

Regulatory record (85) is the strongest factor: no regulator fine after the 2018 breach or since. Privacy (36) is the weakest, because Careem shares contact, location and activity data for advertising and works with audience networks. Security (50) reflects a large breach disclosed three months late and no public bug bounty. For food delivery in the same region, compare talabat.