Malaysia wants to move away from Waze. Will drivers make the switch?

Asia

Malaysia has banned the popular Israeli navigation app for civil servants and urged citizens not to use it. Motorists say they lack a viable homegrown alternative.

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01 Nov 2026 06:00AM

KUALA LUMPUR: Last week, Malaysian taxi driver Mohamed Aidil gave TuJu, the country’s homegrown highway navigation app, a try.

He had heeded a call by Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim for citizens not to use the popular community-driven navigation app Waze, citing data security risks and its compliance with Israeli data laws. 

Less than 24 hours later, however, Aidil, 38, had uninstalled TuJu and reverted to Waze.

“Many destinations were missing while some directions seemed (to be) not making sense," Aidil said about TuJu, which was developed by the Malaysian Highway Authority. 

“It just isn’t good and convenient enough to be used at the moment,” he said.

Aidil is not the only motorist finding it difficult to part ways with Waze, the app used by millions in Malaysia even amid renewed scrutiny over its ties to Israel. 

E-hailing driver P. Vishovartan relies on ride-hailing app Grab’s built-in navigation map while ferrying passengers, but defaults to Waze for his personal driving, especially when he goes back to his hometown of Penang. 

"Waze is the most accurate when it comes to estimated travel times and toll costs," said Vishovartan. It is also the best at finding alternative routes in the event of heavy traffic, he said.

While Vishovartan strongly condemns Israel’s military actions in Gaza and other places, he admitted it is difficult to stop using Waze at the moment because of its real-time incident and accident updates.  

Waze launched in 2006 as an open-source project called FreeMap Israel and was acquired by technology giant Google for over US$1 billion in 2013. It remains operated by Waze Mobile, which is based in Tel Aviv, according to its privacy policy. 

Malaysia on Oct 20 banned its civil servants from using Waze, citing concerns over sensitive government information and personal data. The directive covers both their official working hours and personal time. 

“Sensitive government information and the personal data of citizens must be protected from exploitation by the Israeli regime in ways that could undermine national security and sovereignty,” said a Prime Minister’s Office statement on Oct 21.

Malaysia does not have diplomatic ties with Israel and is a longtime advocate of the Palestinian cause. 

Waze has rejected allegations that it collects sensitive government information or allows users' personal data to be exploited.

“CANNOT LIVE WITHOUT IT”

The government directive and Anwar’s exhortation have stirred debate among motorists and netizens about issues such as principles versus practicality, and the availability of homegrown alternatives that measure up. 

Masrizal Mahidin, president of the Malaysia E-Hailing and Delivery Organisation (MEDO), said that the association’s members have been told to stand by to use alternative navigation apps, while continuing to use whichever tools they feel most comfortable with.

“The community has been asking us a lot of questions since the announcement. I don’t think we are all that important (when it comes to data) secrecy compared to government servants,” he said. 

Waze is still the preferred app of most e-hailing riders, while Google Maps is popular among delivery riders making multiple deliveries, he said.

Masrizal said he uses Grab Maps as his primary tool during work, and Waze as a secondary option. But Waze is superior for real-time traffic updates, he said.

Regular motorists like lawyer Suzanna Norlihan said Waze is simply too convenient to abandon. "I need it and just cannot live without it," she told CNA.

Suzanna pointed out that while she actively boycotts brands with ties to the Israeli military, such as McDonald's, following its public support for Israel Defense Forces soldiers, she saw no concrete evidence that Waze directly funded or participated in the conflict.

On its website, Waze said that it focuses strictly on vehicle navigation while Google Maps focuses on comprehensive “geographic exploration”.

Reports dating back to 2017 identified Malaysia as one of Asia's most dominant Waze markets, driven by six million monthly active users, 2.5 million of whom were based in the greater Kuala Lumpur area. 

CNA has reached out to Waze on the current number of Malaysian users and the impact of the Malaysian government’s position on the application. 

LACK OF USER-FRIENDLY HOMEGROWN ALTERNATIVE

Malaysia automotive industry analyst Hezeri Samsuri, who is managing editor of automotive news platform Careta Media, told CNA that while developing a homegrown navigation platform is a positive move for Malaysia, any alternative must be fully functional before being publicly championed.

"I downloaded TuJu myself, and it couldn’t even locate Putrajaya," he noted, referring to Malaysia’s administrative capital. 

“The reality is that navigation apps have become an embedded part of daily life for Malaysian motorists and it is pretty difficult to steer people clear from something they are familiar with,” he said. 

One of the reasons Waze was popular is because it shares the location of speed cameras and road blocks, he added.

On social media platform Threads, many users have similarly complained of frequent system failures and a lack of user-friendly features.

Malaysian Highway Authority chairperson Hasni Mohammad, however, told Malaysiakini that TuJu was developed primarily to improve services along tolled highways, rather than to compete directly with Waze.

“Perhaps 10 or 15 years from now, yes, we could expand to federal roads, municipal roads and village roads. But for now, the focus is solely on tolled highways,” he said.

A cybersecurity expert noted data privacy risks are not unique to Waze.

“All these applications have the ability to access our location and to remember our routes travelled and our activities. This kind of tracking is not limited to Waze itself. Many other social media platforms apps also have similar tracking capabilities and some are even more intrusive,” said Fong Choong Fook, executive chairman cybersecurity firm LGMS. 

Banning Waze in the absence of a reliable replacement may be too hasty, he said.

Anwar has also acknowledged as much, saying on Oct 24 that any further decision on a blanket ban on Waze would be made after assessing whether existing alternatives had sufficient capabilities, Malay Mail reported.

Other observers have also noted that the Malaysian government may need to examine other foreign tech platforms if the concern is data residency and security.

Former Bank Negara Malaysia deputy governor Sukudhew Singh questioned whether civil servants should similarly be banned from using American-developed platforms like Google, ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Microsoft Office.

"For that matter, why not ban DeepSeek and Chinese telecommunications or computer hardware from government use? The Chinese could also be spying on Putrajaya," he said in a LinkedIn post on Oct 22. 

“The government should apply consistent, evidence-based standards to national data security, regardless of company nationality,” he added. 

Speaking to CNA on condition of anonymity, a civil servant who asked to be known only as Anisah wondered how Putrajaya plans to monitor and enforce compliance with the Waze directive. 

Malaysia’s National Security Council director-general Raja Nushirwan Zainal Abidin was quoted as saying by Bernama that any breach of the directive carried “disciplinary implications”. 

But Anisah said she and her colleagues have yet to be briefed over the use of the application. “Do we surrender our phones to our bosses?” she wondered.

Malaysia’s stance on Waze has also led some motorists to try out other apps.

Threads user @aliyaruzlan posted on Oct 23 that she was deleting Waze after three years and had installed three other navigation applications: TuJu, another local application called Pintaz and Amap, which is from China.   

On Google’s Play Store, the TuJu app has been downloaded more than half a million times while Pintaz has more than 100,000 downloads. 

Motorist Farwina Faroque, 44, who works as a secretary at a think tank, said the government could consider a complete ban of Waze, but should first ensure a comparable alternative is available.

Farwina, who uses Google Maps sparingly, pointed to South Korea, where strict national security and geospatial data laws historically restricted foreign mapping services, forcing the market to adapt to localised applications such as KakaoMap.

“If an app is still available, people would naturally use it. Some of my friends also use it even though they are against Israel. But before banning Waze, the government must ensure a capable alternative is in place," said Farwina, who has never installed Waze because of its Israeli origins. 

Source: CNA/rv (cc)