Israeli-founded navigation app Waze has mapped out sensitive locations not registered on public maps in Malaysia, the head of the country's National Cyber Security Agency (NACSA) has said.
The app, which is now owned by Google's parent company, has come under scrutiny from the Malaysian government in recent weeks over concerns about data being accessible to the state of Israel.
"We do not deny that the data is with them, including locations that may not have been placed on the map, sensitive areas," said NACSA head Megat Zuhairy Megat Tajuddin in a Malay-language statement carried by local media.
"If you remember, in the early stages of Waze's development, if we wanted to go back to our hometown, the directions given were not correct. However, after years of use, we Malaysians have provided the information the application needs."
He also said Malaysia had around 6.9 million Waze users in 2019, making it the app’s fifth-largest national user base at the time.
"Because of the input provided by us, Waze has a huge amount of information on locations and mapping in Malaysia," Megat said.
Earlier this week, Malaysia's government barred civil servants from using the app while on official duties, citing the need to "protect government information and users' personal data from the threat of misuse by the Israeli regime".
Several Malaysian officials have raised concerns over Waze’s terms of service, which state that the agreement is governed by Israeli law and disputes fall under the exclusive jurisdiction of courts in Israel’s Tel Aviv district.
Waze has rejected Malaysia’s claims, saying allegations that the platform collected sensitive information or allowed any entity to exploit users’ personal data were entirely false.
Earlier this month, Iraq banned the navigation app citing similar concerns.
Israel, which has no diplomatic ties with Malaysia, has previously been accused of conducting operations within Malaysia targeting Palestinians. This includes the 2018 assassination of engineer Fadi al-Batsh in Kuala Lumpur, and a failed attempt to kidnap a Palestinian computer engineer in 2022.