INDEX / DIRECTORY / WAZE

Waze🇮🇱

Navigation 149 CITED SOURCES UPDATED 2026-09-07 METHOD V6.5
BDS-1000 Score 864 /1000 A Tier A - Extreme
Military ↗ 0.00 Digital ↗ 9.50 Economic ↗ 7.50 Political ↗ 5.50
OWNERSHIP TREE 0 brands and group businesses View all

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Key Findings

  • Political: Waze’s default-on “high-risk area” feature is documented as historically warning users about entry into Palestinian Areas A and B; current documentation confirms the feature remains available in Israel but does not disclose its present West Bank boundaries.1, 2
  • Economic: Waze Mobile Ltd. is an Israeli-incorporated operating entity at 98 Yigal Alon Street, Tel Aviv; Google acquired Waze in June 2013 for $969 million in cash consideration.3, 4
  • Digital: Under the rubric’s integrated-group attribution rule, Waze’s Google-group affiliation and organisational integration mean Google Cloud’s direct Project Nimbus provision governs Digital, although Waze is not itself established as the Nimbus contractor.3, 5, 6, 7
  • Not found: No public evidence identified of Waze holding a direct Israeli defence or security procurement contract, supplying military products, or operating a purpose-built military navigation product.8, 9

Target Profile

FieldDetail
Company NameWaze / Waze Mobile Ltd.3
JurisdictionIsrael; Waze Mobile Ltd. is incorporated and operating under Israeli law.3
Headquarters98 Yigal Alon Street, Tel Aviv, Israel.3
SectorConsumer GPS navigation, traffic-information, search, location-advertising, and municipal traffic-data services.10
OwnershipGoogle acquired Waze in 2013; Waze is within the Google/Alphabet corporate group. The supplied record does not independently establish Waze Mobile Ltd.’s precise current intermediate ownership chain or percentage ownership.4, 6
Key Executives / GovernanceSundar Pichai is CEO of Alphabet and Google; John L. Hennessy is Alphabet Board Chair. Larry Page and Sergey Brin together held approximately 52.7% of Alphabet total voting power as of April 2026. These are parent-level governance roles, not established Waze Mobile Ltd. management roles.11
Israeli-Nexus SummaryIsraeli-incorporated navigation provider whose documented nexus includes Israeli operations, mapping and traffic interfaces, product treatment of Palestinian areas and settlement roads, and use of Google Cloud infrastructure.1, 3, 12

Key Facts:

Executive Summary

Waze is an Israeli-incorporated consumer navigation and traffic-information service within the Google/Alphabet group. Its current terms and privacy materials identify Waze Mobile Ltd. at 98 Yigal Alon Street, Tel Aviv, as the relevant operating entity. Google acquired Waze in June 2013 for $969 million in cash consideration, creating a documented historical economic connection between an Israeli-origin technology company and the Google group.3, 4

The strongest Waze-specific record concerns product design and operation in Israel and the occupied West Bank. Historical reporting and product testing documented warnings that directed users away from Palestinian Areas A and B, while current Waze documentation confirms that high-risk-area avoidance remains available and default-on in Israel without publicly defining the feature’s current geographic boundaries. Historical evidence also described routing through settler-accessible roads and an absence of a comparable Palestinian-user settlement-avoidance option; the supplied record does not establish that every current route or geofence operates in the same way.1, 2, 14

Waze also has documented traffic-information interfaces with Israeli public bodies, including Israel Police, Magen David Adom, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Ayalon Highway. It coordinated with the IDF’s Judea and Samaria Division in 2017 regarding warnings for Israeli drivers, and restored live traffic information during the 2023 Gaza war in coordination with the Home Front Command. These records establish civilian-app coordination and public-sector traffic relationships, not a defence procurement award or military supply contract.15, 16, 17

The digital score applies the rubric’s integrated-group attribution rule. Waze’s terms define the service together with Google affiliates, Waze was acquired by Google, and the product was organisationally combined with Google Geo; the group is therefore treated as operationally integrated rather than arms-length.3, 4, 6, 7 Google Cloud’s direct Project Nimbus provision to Israeli government and security bodies supplies the governing Digital frame.5, 18, 19 This does not claim that Waze Mobile Ltd. signed the Nimbus contract or directly deployed Google’s broader AI and surveillance capabilities. No public evidence identified of direct Waze defence procurement, weapons production, tactical variants, offensive cyber capabilities, or direct biometric surveillance deployment.8, 9, 20

On the fixed, human-vetted V6.5 method, these documented vectors yield a BRS of 864 and Tier A (Extreme Complicity). That outcome reflects direct Waze conduct in Economic and Political and integrated-group attribution of Google Cloud’s Project Nimbus conduct in Digital. It does not misstate that group-attributed conduct as a Waze Mobile Ltd. contract or convert historical allegations or unresolved claims into established facts.

Timeline of Relevant Events

DateEvent
11 February 2008A secondary registry presentation reports incorporation of Waze Mobile Ltd. in Israel; an official company extract was not retrieved in the supplied record.21
11 June 2013Google completed its acquisition of Waze; Alphabet’s FY2013 filing records $969 million in cash consideration.4
March 2016IDF soldiers using Waze entered Qalandiya refugee camp after disabling the app’s danger-area setting; the incident resulted in a Palestinian fatality, and standing orders against GPS-app use by IDF soldiers followed.22
August 2017Reporting documented Waze consultation with the IDF Judea and Samaria Division on warnings for drivers approaching specified Palestinian areas.16
20187amleh testing documented warnings associated with Palestinian areas, no Waze settlement-travel warning, and no equivalent Palestinian-user avoidance option in its comparison.14
December 2022Google announced that Waze would be combined with its Geo/Maps organisation.7
October–December 2023Waze suspended real-time traffic data in Israel following instructions linked to the Home Front Command and later restored it in coordination with that body.17
February 2025Reporting described Waze’s editable mapping architecture as exposing IDF bases, routes, and installations; this was reported as a platform-security risk, not a Waze security-service contract.23
June 2025Reporting stated that Israeli authorities shut down navigation applications including Waze during Iranian strikes, evidencing live use in Israel but not a Waze state contract.24
July 2026A Waze announcement identified Gai Berkovich as VP & GM, Waze, evidencing continued product activity.25

Corporate Overview

Waze Mobile Ltd. is the Israeli-incorporated service provider for Waze. Its terms define “Waze” to include Waze Mobile Ltd. together with Google affiliates and subsidiaries. The supplied filings establish Google/Alphabet group affiliation, while not independently disclosing Waze Mobile Ltd.’s exact present intermediate ownership chain or ownership percentage.3, 6

Google acquired Waze in 2013. Google then stated that Waze’s product-development team would remain in Israel and operate separately for the time being; in 2022 it announced organisational consolidation of Waze into Google Geo. The supplied record nevertheless identifies Waze as an active product with Waze Ads, Waze for Cities, and continuing business-development channels.4, 7, 25

The audits identify no current Waze subsidiary, franchisee, authorised reseller, dealer network, or separate Waze-branded operating-entity list in the West Bank, East Jerusalem, or Golan Heights. The documented distribution channel is a free consumer app through app stores; this does not establish where individual users may download or use it.9, 6

Waze’s Israeli public-sector relationships are principally data and traffic-management interfaces. Its Connected Citizens Program records relationships with Israel Police, Magen David Adom, Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, and Ayalon Highway. The available evidence does not independently confirm which relationships remain active in 2026, their terms, or whether any constitute procurement contracts.15

Domain Summaries

Military: Military

Mechanism of Involvement

No public evidence identified of Waze holding a direct procurement contract, tender award, framework agreement, or MoU with the Israeli Ministry of Defence, IDF, Israel Prison Service, or Israel Border Police in the reviewed public record. A 2016 government procurement record concerned branded map pins and pop-up messages promoting civilian attractions and activities; its value, term, amendments, and current status were not established.8, 26

Waze consulted with the IDF’s Judea and Samaria Division in 2017 about driver warnings near Palestinian areas, and IDF personnel have used the consumer app during documented West Bank incidents. The evidence establishes consultation and end-user use of a civilian application, rather than procurement, contracted operational support, or a military-modified product.16, 22

Waze routes roads connecting settlements and Israel, including Area C roads reported as unavailable to many Palestinian drivers. Reporting also described Waze recommendations for Routes 5 and 90 as part of a broader sovereignty-oriented settlement-road context. This is a documented navigation relationship, not evidence that Waze constructed, maintained, financed, or supplied equipment for those roads.27

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

Waze is documented as a consumer-grade GPS navigation product; Google Play states it is not intended for emergency or oversized vehicles. No public evidence identified of ruggedised, tactical, military-modified, or purpose-built military navigation variants, weapons systems, munitions, base services, logistics contracts, or supply-chain integration with Israeli defence primes.9, 10

The IDF’s use of “intelligence Waze” in a 2024 article referred to an internally developed Military Intelligence platform, not Waze Mobile Ltd. or Google. Reported exposure of bases and patrol routes through Waze’s editable map is a security-risk finding, not evidence of military service provision.23, 28

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Digital: Digital

Mechanism of Involvement

Waze is part of an operationally integrated Google group: its terms define Waze together with Google affiliates, Google acquired it in 2013, and Waze was later combined with Google Geo.3, 4, 6, 7 Under the rubric’s integrated-group attribution rule, the most-directly engaged group entity governs proximity rather than receiving an arms-length subsidiary discount.

Project Nimbus is a Google Cloud and AWS contract with the Israeli government, and the audit documents Google Cloud provision to Israeli government, military, and security bodies.5, 18, 19 That direct group-level sovereign-cloud provision is the governing Digital frame. The audit does not identify Waze Mobile Ltd. as the contract signatory; its attribution arises from integrated-group scope, not from inventing a Waze-specific military-cloud contract.

Waze data, including traffic flows, incident reports, and GPS pings during active navigation, is documented as using Google Cloud infrastructure, while Waze for Cities partner data was migrated to Google Cloud infrastructure.12, 29 This supports operational integration but is not itself evidence that Waze data was supplied under Nimbus.

Waze’s direct security-body interactions include its 2017 warning coordination with the IDF and its restoration of real-time traffic information in coordination with the Home Front Command in 2023. Waze’s open editing system has also been reported to reveal locations, patrol routes, and trip data connected to IDF sites. The latter is an unintended platform-exposure concern, not a Waze surveillance deployment or a supply relationship.16, 17, 23

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

No public evidence identified of Waze directly deploying facial recognition, biometrics, behavioural analytics, predictive policing, offensive cyber tools, autonomous target generation, automated threat detection, or standalone AI/ML products to Israeli state, military, or security bodies.9, 20

The record documents broader Google AI and cloud services reported to support Israeli military and surveillance functions, including Project Nimbus.5, 18, 19 Those acts are group-attributed for scoring because the rubric treats an operationally integrated group as unitary; they are not presented as acts performed by Waze data, models, personnel, or a Waze-signed contract. Waze is not separately named in the relevant UN report.19

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Economic: Economic

Mechanism of Involvement

Waze is an Israeli-origin digital navigation, traffic-information, search, and location-advertising service rather than a physical-goods producer, retailer, importer, distributor, or manufacturer. Its documented economic nexus is its Israeli incorporation, operating presence, historical R&D footprint, advertising and data-exchange business model, and the 2013 acquisition.3, 10

The acquisition created a documented historical Israeli economic benefit through founder, investor, employee, and reported tax outcomes. Alphabet’s primary FY2013 filing records $969 million in cash consideration. The audits do not identify current Waze-only revenue, profitability, tax payments, Israeli employment, R&D expenditure, or settlement-specific revenue.4, 30

Waze for Cities exchanges information with municipal and road-operator partners, including closures, incidents, events, parking and business locations, vehicle feeds, and aggregate anonymised GPS-based traffic data. No public evidence identified of a Waze-specific Israeli state, IDF, settlement-authority, or settlement-business contract in the supplied record.31, 32

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

No public evidence identified of Waze purchasing, importing, distributing, white-labelling, or selling Israeli-origin or settlement-origin physical goods; of holding Israeli sovereign bonds or defence-company investments; or of underwriting, lending, insurance, or financial-sector operations tied to Israel.10, 32

Historical West Bank route testing documented possible settlement-road routing and warning features, but it was not independently retested in the supplied research. Current settlement-specific advertising, revenue, operations, and route outcomes are not established by the record.14, 32

Named Entities and Evidence Map

Political: Political

Mechanism of Involvement

Waze’s most documented political nexus is map design and high-risk-area treatment in the occupied Palestinian territory. Current official documentation states that high-risk-area alerts are available in Israel and that Waze avoids such areas by default. It does not publicly identify the relevant boundaries, criteria, source data, or decision-maker.1

Historical reporting and research connect the feature to Palestinian Areas A and B. A peer-reviewed study concluded that Waze’s danger designation followed Oslo geopolitical classifications rather than an empirically measured safety variable. 2018 testing found warnings around Palestinian areas and reported no equivalent settlement-avoidance choice for Palestinian users; 2025 reporting describes continuing Palestinian reliance on local alternatives for checkpoint and closure information.2, 14, 33

Waze has documented data relationships with Israeli police, emergency, municipal, and road bodies. During the 2023 conflict period, it suspended and later restored traffic information in coordination with the Home Front Command. This documents compliance and state-interface activity, not a formal military procurement relationship.15, 17

Counter-Arguments and Evidence Limits

No public evidence identified of a Waze-branded corporate statement on Gaza, Palestinian civilian harm, the July 2024 ICJ advisory opinion, or November 2024 ICC arrest warrants. No public evidence identified of Waze-specific lobbying, political spending, anti-BDS advocacy, donations to IDF-linked or settlement organisations, or political action by verified current Waze executives in the supplied material.34, 35

The evidence is materially time-limited. Current official documents confirm the continuing high-risk feature but not its full current West Bank geofence. Historical Green Line, settlement-labelling, checkpoint, and route-access concerns have not been resolved by a supplied current reproducible Waze test. Waze has stated that it does not take political stances and that user contributions supply map data; this is a company position, not a resolution of the documented asymmetries.1, 33, 36

Named Entities and Evidence Map

BDS-1000 Score

Method: V6.5.

DomainIMPV-Domain Score
Military0.000.000.000.00
Digital9.508.509.009.50
Economic7.507.009.007.50
Political5.507.009.005.50

V_MAX is driven by the digital assessment: Google Cloud directly provides the Project Nimbus sovereign-cloud layer, and the rubric attributes that act to Waze because the documented Google group is operationally integrated.3, 4, 5, 6, 7 Waze Mobile Ltd. is not presented as the Nimbus contract signatory. The remaining scores reflect Waze’s Israeli operating and economic footprint, product design and mapping practices, and documented public-sector coordination. V6.5 is a scale-free, evidence-only, human-vetted method; scores are fixed and distinguish group-attributed conduct from Waze-specific acts.

Methodology Note

Footnotes

  1. https://support.google.com/waze/answer/7077122?hl=en-GB ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6

  2. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10708-019-10117-y ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  3. https://support.google.com/waze/answer/12373727?hl=en ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12 ↩13 ↩14 ↩15 ↩16 ↩17 ↩18

  4. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1288776/000128877614000020/goog2013123110-k.htm ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10 ↩11 ↩12

  5. https://theintercept.com/2025/05/12/google-nimbus-israel-military-ai-human-rights ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9 ↩10

  6. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1652044/000165204426000018/goog-20251231.htm ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8 ↩9

  7. https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/bktjhfyoo ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7 ↩8

  8. https://www.online.mod.gov.il/Online2016/Pages/General/Support/balamhelp.aspx ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  9. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.waze ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5 ↩6 ↩7

  10. https://support.google.com/waze/answer/11942300 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  11. https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1652044/000130817926000342/goog-20260424.htm ↩ ↩2

  12. https://support.google.com/waze/partners/answer/10715739?hl=en ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  13. https://startupintros.com/orgs/waze ↩

  14. https://7amleh.org/ms/Mapping%20Segregation%20Cover_WEB.pdf ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  15. https://medium.com/waze/waze-celebrates-600-connected-citizens-program-partners-36945fbceb66 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  16. https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2017-08-02/ty-article/waze-consults-idf-to-prevent-misdirected-drivers-in-west-bank/0000017f-e873-df5f-a17f-fbff8fb30000 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  17. https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/sjjjjdhv6 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4 ↩5

  18. https://time.com/6966102/google-contract-israel-defense-ministry-gaza-war/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  19. https://www.un.org/unispal/document/a-hrc-59-23-from-economy-of-occupation-to-economy-of-genocide-report-special-rapporteur-francesca-albanese-palestine-2025 ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  20. https://support.google.com/waze/answer/12075406?hl=en ↩ ↩2

  21. https://www.checkid.co.il/company/%D7%95%D7%95%D7%99%D7%99%D7%96-%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%91%D7%99%D7%9C-%D7%91%D7%A2~%D7%9E-514100056 ↩

  22. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mr/01/israeli-soldiers-waze-app-use-leads-to-deadly-fight-in-palestinian-west-bank-camp ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  23. https://www.calcalistech.com/ctechnews/article/r1ik71ltje ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  24. https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/defense-news/article-857946 ↩

  25. https://blog.google/waze/waze-updates-gemini-motorcycle-mode/ ↩ ↩2 ↩3

  26. https://mr.gov.il/ilgstorefront/he/p/585263 ↩

  27. https://www.shomrim.news/eng/paving-the-way-to-annexation ↩

  28. https://www.idf.il/%D7%90%D7%AA%D7%A8%D7%99-%D7%99%D7%97%D7%99%D7%93%D7%95%D7%AA/%D7%99%D7%95%D7%9E%D7%9F-%D7%94%D7%9E%D7%9C%D7%97%D7%9E%D7%94/%D7%9B%D7%9C-%D7%94%D7%9B%D7%AA%D7%91%D7%95%D7%AA/%D7%9B%D7%AA%D7%91%D7%95%D7%AA-%D7%99%D7%99%D7%96%D7%95%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%AA/%D7%90%D7%9E%D7%9F-%D7%9E%D7%95%D7%93%D7%99%D7%A2%D7%99%D7%9F-%D7%95%D7%95%D7%99%D7%96-%D7%90%D7%95%D7%9C%D7%A8-%D7%9C%D7%95%D7%97%D7%9E%D7%99%D7%9D-%D7%A2%D7%96%D7%94-%D7%A6%D7%91%D7%90-%D7%A6%D7%94%D7%9C-%D7%AA%D7%9E%D7%A8%D7%95%D7%9F-%D7%A7%D7%A8%D7%A7%D7%A2%D7%99-%D7%A0%D7%99%D7%95%D7%95%D7%98/ ↩

  29. https://web-assets.waze.com/cms/Waze%20for%20Cities-Two-Pager_DIGITAL_Final.pdf ↩ ↩2

  30. https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/business/2014-01-13/ty-article/.premium/googles-tax-bill-for-waze-373m/0000017f-e56f-d62c-a1ff-fd7f5bcd0000 ↩

  31. https://www.waze.com/wazeforcities ↩ ↩2

  32. https://www.gov.il/en/service/company_extract ↩ ↩2 ↩3 ↩4

  33. https://restofworld.org/2025/palestinians-digital-maps-west-bank-israel/ ↩ ↩2

  34. https://www.cnn.com/2023/10/23/tech/google-maps-waze-israel-traffic-data/index.html ↩

  35. https://bdsmovement.net/Guide-to-BDS-Boycott ↩

  36. https://www.timesofisrael.com/politics-drives-waze-users-to-edit-apps-israeli-map/ ↩