A bill coming up for a vote in the Egyptian Parliament would mandate that ridesharing companies not only host relevant servers inside the country, but connect their data to "relevant" government bodies. If the bill becomes law, it would be all too easy for Egypt to scoop up ride data for the political opposition (say, where activist leaders are meeting) or block the service to thwart protests. There's certainly reason to be worried: the government blocked both Signal's secure chat app and numerous websites in a bid to stifle dissent.

Uber and Careem are both pushing for amendments that would soften the bill. However, they may be reluctant to quit the Egyptian market even if the measure goes through as-is. The country is practically tailor-made for ridesharing between its large population, low car ownership and dirt-cheap operating costs (even a long Uber ride across Cairo costs less than $1). If a ridesharing service withdraws, it's giving up many customers.