Citymapper

Is Citymapper safe?

Yes, and it is one of the lighter-touch navigation apps we have looked at. You can plan a trip without creating an account, Citymapper says it reads your location mostly while the app is on screen, and we found no breach, fine or regulator order involving it. The weak spot is advertising. Apple's label lists advertising data used to track you across other companies' apps, and Citymapper's owner Via told investors in its 2025 annual report that "in the context of Citymapper, we also process personally identifiable information to deliver targeted advertisements".

We score Citymapper 70/100, ahead of Google Maps (60) and Waze (63). It collects less and offers more control, but it lacks the account security tools and outside scrutiny of the big platforms.

What does Citymapper know about you?

The App Store label is narrower than those of most map apps. Precise location is linked to you for Citymapper's own marketing, analytics, personalisation and app features. Name, email, phone number, address, payment details and user ID are linked for app functions. For third-party advertising the label lists only advertising data, not location, and that advertising data is the one item used to track you.

The privacy policy, last updated in August 2026, adds detail the label leaves out. Ad partners' cookies and SDKs can collect online identifiers, device information, usage information and location information when you use the app, depending on your ad and cookie preferences. Citymapper also shares device identifiers and some usage information with ad partners to place ads inside the app. The in-app cookie and ad preference tool decides how much of this happens.

Location collection is the part to understand. The policy says Citymapper generally collects location when the app is "running in the foreground", and in the background only during Go navigation, so it can tell you when to get off a bus. It can also estimate your city and postcode from your IP address. That is a meaningful difference from apps such as Moovit, whose policy says it collects location in the background even when you are not using the app.

Why Via's ownership matters

Via bought Citymapper in March 2023 to add a rider-facing app to its software for cities and transit agencies. Citymapper's policy says personal data is shared within the Via group, mainly for customer support on journeys booked through the app, analytics and troubleshooting. Via's 10-K describes selling cities "data insights based on how passengers are using the Via and Citymapper apps" to guide planning. The policy says data shared with agencies and partners in this way is aggregated, anonymised or de-identified.

None of this is unusual for a transit business, and aggregated ridership data has real public value. But it means your journeys feed a company whose customers are governments and transit operators, not just you. Via is a US company, and transfers of European users' data rely on Via's certification under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework and on standard contractual clauses.

Security and record

We found no reported breach of Citymapper user data and no regulator decision about its security. Via's annual report describes a dedicated security team, outside assessments and an incident response plan, which is standard for a listed company. Via runs a public bug bounty on HackerOne whose scope names the Citymapper Android and iPhone apps and its API, with rewards of up to $2,500 for critical flaws. Citymapper offers nothing beyond normal transport encryption. Because many people never create an account, there is often little personal data to steal in the first place.

Settings worth changing

1. Use Citymapper without an account if you only need routes. Sign in only if you need features tied to an account.
2. Open the app's cookie and ad preferences and refuse personalised advertising. On an iPhone, also choose "Ask App Not to Track" when prompted.
3. Set location to "While Using the App". Background access is needed only for Go alerts.
4. If you stop using Citymapper, delete the account from inside the app rather than just uninstalling it.

How we scored it

Scams and harmful content (82) and transparency and control (75) are Citymapper's strongest factors: no account is needed, there is no social feed, and location use is limited. Privacy (52) is its weakest, held back by tracking through advertising data and the location information ad partners can collect. Security (75) reflects a clean record and a paid bug bounty that covers the app, without end-to-end encryptionEnd-to-end encryptionEncryption in which only the sender and the recipient can read a message. The company running the service cannot see its content.More in the glossary.