M'sia govt urges citizens to delete Waze citing Israeli links, bans civil servants from using app

Malaysia civil servants will have to find other ways to navigate the roads after prime minister Anwar Ibrahim issued a ban of the app within the civil service.

In an Oct. 21 post on Facebook, the Prime Minister's Office in Malaysia cited the need to protect government information and user data from the threat of abuse by the Israeli regime.

Waze, via a spokesperson, rejected the allegations in a statement sent to Reuters: "Waze operates under strict privacy policies that protect user data and comply with global legal data protection standards."

Waze was founded in Israel and uses satellite signals and ​crowd-sourced data from drivers to offer real-time traffic information, reported Reuters.

It was acquired by Alphabet-owned Google ​in 2013.

However, Anwar said the company was still subject to Israeli laws.

He also encouraged all Malaysians to stop using the app and switch to local alternatives like Tuju, a navigation app developed by the Malaysian Highway Authority.

App could collect data even when not in use: national security director-general

The Malay Mail reported that Malaysia's government will stop short of introducing a blanket ban on the app.

"We always need to strike a balance between security and human rights consideration and freedom of expression, freedom to choose,” said National Security Council director-general for National Security Nushirwan Zainal Abidin.

Civil servants will not be able to use the app while on official duties, and have been encouraged to uninstall it from their personal devices.

"The application could continue collecting data even when users were not actively using it, depending on its permissions and device settings," warned Nushirwan.