Malaysia bans civil servants from using Waze over Israel links

KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 22:  Malaysia banned civil servants from using the navigation app Waze, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s office said yesterday, citing data security concerns over its links to Israel.

Kuala Lumpur is a longstanding and vocal critic of Israel and maintains no diplomatic relations with it.
Waze, which is owned by Google LLC, was founded in Israel and remains incorporated there.

Anwar “has decided to prohibit the use of the navigation application Waze among all civil servants,” his office said.

“This measure is intended to safeguard government information and users’ personal data against the threat of misuse by the Israeli regime,” it added in a statement posted on Facebook.�" AFP