Privacy Policy

Buraq is a ride-hailing platform that connects riders with independent drivers, whom we call captains, in Greater Cairo. It is operated by Buraq Technologies, a company registered in Egypt (“Buraq”, “we”, “us”). We are the data controller for the personal data described in this policy.

This policy applies to the Buraq rider app, the Buraq captain app, our website at buraqegypt.com, and the support channels we run. It explains what we collect, why, who we share it with, how long we keep it, how we protect it, and the rights you have under Egypt’s Personal Data Protection Law No. 151 of 2020.

If anything here is unclear, write to us at legal@buraqegypt.com. Our Terms of Service describe the service itself.

We collect only what we need to provide rides safely, to keep the platform honest and to meet our legal duties. What we collect depends on how you use Buraq.

If you ride

Account details

Your name, your phone number and, if you choose to add one, your email address.

Locations

Your pickup and drop-off locations, and your live location while a trip is in progress so your captain can find you and the trip can be followed.

Trip history

The trips you have taken, their routes, times and fares.

Ratings and feedback

The ratings and comments you give and receive.

Messages

In-trip chat messages between you and your captain, and your conversations with our support team.

Trusted contacts

The names and phone numbers of the people you choose for trip sharing and for the SOS feature. Please make sure they are happy for you to share their details with us.

If you drive

Captains provide everything above and, because Egyptian law and passenger safety require it, the following as well:

National ID number

Stored only as a salted hash, which lets us confirm it is the same number without keeping the number itself in readable form.

Licences and documents

Your driving licence, vehicle licence, criminal-record certificate and vehicle documents. These are stored encrypted and are opened only through short-lived access links.

Photo

A selfie or profile photo, shown to riders so they can recognise you.

Vehicle details

Make, model, colour, year and plate number.

Earnings and cash records

Your earnings, payouts and cash-collection records.

Location while online

Your location whenever you are online in the captain app, so trips can be dispatched to you and followed by riders.

Everyone

Device and network

A device identifier and your IP address, recorded with each trip and each payment to prevent fraud and to resolve disputes.

Notifications

A push-notification token for your device, so we can tell you when your captain is arriving or a code has been sent.

Diagnostics

Crash reports and performance data from the apps, so we can find and fix problems.

Website

The website stores your language and theme choice on your device and, when you sign in, a secure session cookie. We do not use advertising or tracking cookies.

We use personal data for these purposes, and no others:

• Providing rides: matching riders with captains, navigating, showing fares, keeping trip history and sending receipts.
• Safety: verifying captains, sharing a trip with trusted contacts, the SOS feature, and investigating incidents.
• Fraud and dispute prevention: spotting suspicious accounts and activity, and reconstructing what happened when a trip or payment is disputed.
• Support: answering your questions and resolving complaints and lost-item requests.
• Legal compliance: keeping the records Egyptian law requires and responding to lawful requests from the authorities.
• Improving the service: understanding how Buraq is used, fixing problems and planning where to operate next, using aggregated or de-identified data wherever possible.

We do not sell your personal data, and we do not share it with anyone for their own marketing.

Under Law No. 151 of 2020 we process your data on one of these grounds:

• Your consent, which you give when you create an account and which you can withdraw at any time (see “Your rights and choices”). Some features, such as trip sharing, ask for their own consent when you first use them.
• To provide the service you asked for: a trip cannot happen without your location and phone number.
• A legal duty: ride-hailing Law No. 87 of 2018 and its regulations require us to verify captains, to keep certain trip and captain records, and to make them available to the competent authorities when the law requires it.
• Our legitimate interest in running a safe and honest platform, such as preventing fraud and investigating incidents, balanced against your rights.

Riders and captains see each other

When a trip is matched, the captain sees the rider’s first name, rating, pickup and drop-off, and the rider sees the captain’s name, photo, rating, vehicle and plate number. Phone numbers are not shown; in-trip messages go through the app.

People you choose

If you share a trip, the people you choose receive a link that shows your captain, vehicle and live location until the trip ends. If you use SOS, your trusted contacts receive your location and trip details.

Authorities

We share data with the police, courts, regulators and other public bodies when Egyptian law requires it or when a lawful request is made, including the record access that Law No. 87 of 2018 provides for.

A change of ownership

If Buraq is merged with or acquired by another company, your data may be transferred to it, and this policy will continue to apply until you are told otherwise.

We use a small number of specialist companies to run Buraq. Each processes data only on our instructions, for the purpose listed, and under a contract that requires it to protect your data.

Twilio

Sends the SMS codes you use to sign in.

Meta (WhatsApp)

Sends sign-in codes by WhatsApp, when that option is enabled.

Google

Maps and Places for addresses, routes and the map in the apps; Sign in with Google; and Firebase for push notifications.

Apple

Sign in with Apple, and push notifications on iPhone.

Cloudflare

Our DNS, and R2 storage for captains’ encrypted documents.

Our cloud host

Hosts the Buraq servers and database that run the service.

Zoho

Runs our email, including support and legal mailboxes.

Paymob

Will process card payments if and when card payments launch. During the cash-only beta no payment data is shared with any payment processor.

Buraq operates in Egypt, but some of the providers above run their systems outside Egypt, so your data may be stored or processed abroad. When that happens we rely on contracts that hold the provider to data-protection standards at least as strict as those in this policy, on encryption in transit and at rest, and on access limited to what the provider needs to do its job. We make such transfers only where Law No. 151 of 2020 permits them.

We keep personal data for as long as your account is active and as long afterwards as we need it for the purposes above. Trip, payment and captain records are kept for the period that Egyptian law, including Law No. 87 of 2018, requires. Data that is needed for an open dispute, investigation or legal claim is kept until the matter is closed.

When a retention period ends we delete the data or de-identify it so that it can no longer be linked to you.

We take security seriously and use measures that include:

• Encryption of all data in transit, and encryption at rest for the database and for captains’ documents, which are opened only through short-lived links.
• Storing national ID numbers only as salted hashes, never as readable numbers.
• Access controls so that staff see only the data their role needs, with every access logged.
• Sign-in by one-time code rather than passwords, with rate limits against guessing.
• Logging of the device and IP address on each trip and payment, so fraud can be detected and investigated.
• Regular review of our systems and of the providers we use.

No system is perfectly secure. If we learn of a breach that affects your data, we will tell you and the competent authority as the law requires.

Under Law No. 151 of 2020 you have the right to:

• Access the personal data we hold about you and receive a copy of it.
• Correct data that is inaccurate or incomplete. You can change your name, email and trusted contacts in the app at any time.
• Delete your data, subject to the records we must keep by law.
• Object to a particular use of your data, or ask us to limit it.
• Withdraw consent you have given, without affecting what was done before you withdrew it.
• Complain to the Personal Data Protection Centre if you believe we have not respected these rights.

How to make a request

Email legal@buraqegypt.com from the address on your account, or contact us through the app’s Help section, and tell us which right you want to exercise. We may ask you to confirm your identity before we act, so that nobody else can access your data. We will answer within the time the law allows.

Deleting your account

You can delete your account from the Account section of the app, or by writing to support@buraqegypt.com. When you do, we close the account, stop all processing that is not required by law, and delete or de-identify your data once the legal retention period for trip and payment records has passed. A captain’s verification documents are kept for the period Law No. 87 of 2018 requires and are then deleted. If you have an outstanding dispute or balance, we may need to resolve it first.

Your device settings

You can turn off location access and notifications in your phone’s settings. Without location access the app cannot request or provide a trip, because that is what a ride is.

Buraq is for adults. You must be 18 or older to create an account, to ride or to drive. We do not knowingly collect data from anyone under 18; if we learn that we have, we delete it. A parent or guardian who believes a child has used Buraq can write to legal@buraqegypt.com.

We may update this policy as the service, the law or our providers change. The date at the top shows the latest version. If a change matters to you, for example a new purpose or a new category of data, we will tell you in the app or by message before it takes effect, and where the law requires it we will ask for your consent again.

For anything about your personal data, write to legal@buraqegypt.com. For help with a trip or your account, write to support@buraqegypt.com or use the Help section of the app. Buraq Technologies is registered in Egypt; our registered address is available on request.