Waze

Is Waze safe to use?

Yes, for navigation. Waze has no record of a breach of user data, and it gives you a few controls that matter: you can hide from the map, turn off personalised ads and delete your account from inside the app. We score it 61/100, just above Google Maps at 60.

What you give up is location history. Waze's privacy policy says it saves "a route history of all of the journeys you have made", and it uses where you are, where you are heading and what you search for to pick the ads you see. Apple's privacy label lists precise location, physical address and search history as linked to your identity for third-party advertising.

What does Waze know about your drives?

More than most people expect from a traffic app. Waze collects GPS and sensor data with a time stamp and IP address, saves it to a route history tied to your account, and may record your location when you are not using the app, depending on your phone's permission and Waze's settings. It uses that for leave-time alerts and parking help. Add saved home and work addresses, calendar events if you connect them, and favourites, and the account becomes a detailed map of your routine.

Waze is a Google company and shares data with it. The policy says Waze passes de-identified account settings, location and route data to Google's other map and navigation products to improve them. On Android, Waze can also collect details of the Google account signed in on the phone.

Ads are where the data turns into money. Waze serves ads with Google's advertising technology, based on your current location, route and destination type. If personalisation is on, ads can also draw on your home and work addresses, past drives and searches, and your Google account activity. Waze says it does not personalise ads by sensitive categories such as health or religion, and does not give advertisers information that identifies you, such as your name or email, unless you ask, for example by tapping to call a shop from an ad, which can pass on your phone number.

The policy says Waze "does not sell, rent or lease" personal information. Apple's label shows no data used to track you across other companies' apps.

Can strangers track you on Waze?

Not easily, but this is the risk Waze has had to fix before. Other drivers see your approximate position and username, and every hazard or police report you make is posted with that username. In 2020 security researcher Peter Gasper showed that the Waze Live Map's interface returned the coordinates of nearby drivers with ID numbers that did not change, so he could follow one driver along a road and, where people had reported or confirmed hazards, link IDs to usernames. Google fixed the flaw and paid him $1,337 through its bug bounty programme.

The lesson still applies. Use a username that is not your real name, and turn on Invisible mode in the privacy settings if you do not want to appear on the map. Some features stop working while you are invisible.

The police alert controversy

Waze lets drivers mark police on the map, and police forces have objected for more than a decade. In 2015, after the fatal shooting of two New York City officers, police pressed Google to drop the feature. In February 2019 the NYPD sent Google a cease-and-desist letter saying that people posting DWI checkpoint locations "may be engaging in criminal conduct". Google kept the feature and said that "informing drivers about upcoming speed traps allows them to be more careful and make safer decisions".

For drivers, this is a legal question more than a safety one. Google has kept police reports in the US, but rules on warning other drivers about police checks and speed cameras differ by country, so check them before you drive abroad.

The bigger safety risk is distraction. Waze's reports, ads and pop-ups all compete for your attention while you drive. Leave reports to a passenger, or use voice commands.

How to use Waze more privately

1. Set Waze's location permission to "While using the app" unless you rely on leave-time reminders.
2. In Waze's privacy settings, turn off ads personalisation and consider Invisible mode.
3. Use a username unrelated to your real name, and keep your profile photo generic.
4. Check your Google account's ad settings in My Ad Center, since Waze can use them for personalised ads.
5. Review your drive history on the Waze website, and remove saved home and work addresses if you share the phone.
6. To leave for good, use Delete Account in the app; Waze says removal takes about two months.

How we scored it

Scams and harmful content (72) and the regulatory record (70) are Waze's strongest factors: little contact between users, and no fine or order aimed at Waze; Google's location settlements concerned Google account settings, not Waze. Privacy (42) is the weakest, because Waze keeps a full drive history and links precise location to ads. Security (68) reflects a clean breach record with one past tracking flaw. If you share your location with family, see how Life360 compares.