Lime

Is the Lime app safe?

As an app, Lime is one of the lighter ones in travel: it tracks little, shares nothing with other companies according to its Google Play listing, and we found no breach of rider data. The risk with Lime is mostly physical and about how the company has treated riders and regulators. Lime admitted to Australia's consumer watchdog that it likely broke the law by not disclosing a braking fault on older scooters, and Italy fined it €1.4 million in July 2026 over free rides that were hard to claim. We score it 62/100, below Citymapper and above Bolt.

The app is published by Neutron Holdings, Inc. of San Francisco, which listed on Nasdaq as LIME in July 2026. Its prospectus says Lime operated in about 230 cities in 29 countries at the end of 2025 and served about 19 million riders that year. The app is rated 4+ on the App Store.

What Lime collects

Apple's label is short. Only usage data may be used to track you across other companies' apps. Linked to your identity are your payment info, email, name, phone number, device ID and crash data. Location and product interaction data are collected but, according to the label, not linked to you. Google Play says Lime shares no data with other companies, though it lists precise location among the data collected, for purposes that include advertising or marketing.

Lime's prospectus adds two points the labels do not. It says Lime collects government-issued identification as well as trip and location data, which is needed in cities that require ID or age checks; Washington, DC, for example, made Lime add age verification at short notice. And Lime shares rider data "with cities, local authorities, and public transport operators if contractually required" to operate. That is the trade-off of a permit-based business: the city may see where its scooters went.

Security

We found no reported breach of Lime rider data. Lime has paid security researchers through a bug bounty on Bugcrowd since 2019, and its security.txt file gives a contact address. Google Play says data is encrypted in transit.

The prospectus names a risk specific to connected vehicles: an attacker who broke into Lime's systems could in theory immobilise the fleet, interfere with braking or acceleration, or use vehicles' live location to expose where riders are. Lime says it has protections against this; we have seen no report of it happening.

Rider safety and the braking case

Lime says 99.99% of rides between 2021 and 2025 ended without a reported incident, and that the rate of reported incidents has fallen as its fleet grew. Its tools include a safety tutorial for new riders, a beginner Training Mode that limits speed, in-app safety quizzes on local rules, First Ride Academy sessions, and a "Helmet Selfie" feature that rewards riders who wear a helmet. Even so, as of 30 June 2026 Lime held $60.7 million in reserves for personal injury claims, up from $52.4 million at the end of 2025.

The episode that most affects our view is from Australia. According to the ACCC, some of Lime's Gen 2 e-scooters could apply excessive brake force or stop suddenly, and riders suffered broken bones, damaged teeth and cuts. The regulator said Lime did not disclose the issue, failed to make mandatory injury reports on at least 50 occasions, and did not tell the government about the firmware updates it pushed in February and March 2019 to fix it, which the ACCC treated as a recall. In June 2020 Lime acknowledged it had likely breached Australian Consumer Law and gave a court-enforceable undertaking to deploy only Gen 3 or later scooters there.

The Italian fine

On 28 July 2026 Italy's competition and consumer authority, AGCM, fined Lime Technology S.r.l. €1.4 million. To win its Rome permit for 2023–2026, Lime offered holders of the city's annual Metrebus transit pass up to 80 free rides a month. AGCM found that activating the offer through a web form was slow and cumbersome from October 2023 until at least January 2026, which shortened the time people could use it, and called this an aggressive, unfair commercial practice. It reduced the fine from €1.85 million because Lime had taken steps to fix the problem. Lime had 60 days from notification to appeal to the regional administrative court of Lazio. Dott and Bird were fined in parallel cases.

How to ride Lime more safely

1. Use Training Mode on your first rides, and take the in-app tutorial for each vehicle type.
2. Squeeze both brakes and check the lights before you start; end the ride and report the vehicle if anything feels wrong.
3. Wear a helmet, and bring your own if the vehicle does not have one.
4. Refuse tracking when iOS asks, and allow location only while using the app.
5. Ride one person per scooter, and check the local rules on minimum age, pavements and bike lanes.

How we scored it

Security (68) and privacy (62) are the strongest factors: a short tracking label, no data shared according to Google Play, no breach found and a long-running bug bounty. Regulatory record (54) carries the €1.4 million AGCM fine and the ACCC undertaking over the undisclosed braking fault. Scams and harmful content (60) reflects little user content but a real injury record. For planning trips across buses, trains and shared scooters, compare Citymapper.