Waze · Waze Privacy Policy · View original document ↗

Location Collected When App Not in Use

High severity High confidence Explicitdocumentlanguage Common · 299 of 352 platforms
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Recent governance activity Waze recorded 2 documented changes in the last 30 days.
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This analysis describes what Waze's agreement states, permits, or reserves. It does not constitute a legal determination about enforceability. Regulatory applicability and practical outcomes may vary by jurisdiction, enforcement context, and individual circumstances. Read our methodology

ConductAtlas Analysis

Why it matters (compliance & governance perspective)

Data collection is not limited to active app use; Waze may gather location data as background activity, extending its reach beyond sessions the user consciously initiates.

Recent Activity

This document changed recently

Medium Jul 9, 2026

The updated policy now applies to users of any age by removing the prior 16+ requirement, but does not explicitly state whether parental consent is required for minors. The policy defines Personal Information more broadly to include location, route information, and data reasonably linked to you by Waze. The company removed documentation of the 'find friends' feature that previously collected phone numbers from device contacts, suggesting that feature is no longer active or has been redesigned. Privacy controls remain available through in-app settings where you can adjust which Personal Information Waze collects and how it is used.

View change record →
Medium May 5, 2026

The updated policy now explicitly discloses that Waze periodically collects all phone numbers stored on your device's contact book as part of the 'find friends' feature. According to the revised terms, these phone numbers are collected in a form that is initially anonymous to Waze and are used to help create a list of other Waze users you may know. The policy clarifies that names, addresses, and other contact information are not collected from your phone book, though such information may be saved locally on your device for local searches. Additionally, the updated terms now explicitly authorize connecting your Waze account to social network accounts and sharing profile information from those networks. You can control whether to use the 'find friends' feature and whether to connect social network accounts to your Waze account.

View change record →
Medium Apr 19, 2026

The updated policy removes explicit language describing how Waze collects phone numbers from device contact books and integrates social network accounts. Previously, the policy stated that Waze would 'periodically collect all of the phone numbers which are stored on your device's phone contacts book' and described how this information was used for the 'find friends' feature. The revised policy no longer includes these specific disclosures. This does not necessarily mean the practices have stopped, but it means the policy provides less transparency about what data Waze collects from your device and how it uses contact information. Users who relied on these detailed descriptions to understand Waze's data practices will find the updated policy less explicit on these points.

View change record →

Clause Stability Stable

0
Changes
3
Months Monitored
Jul 10, 2026
First Seen
Jul 10, 2026
Last Seen
This clause type exists across 4189 other provisions on other platforms.

Consumer impact (what this means for users)

Your location and travel data may be collected by Waze even when you are not actively using the app.

How other platforms handle this

NVIDIA NIM Medium

telemetry information collected includes: (i) microservice settings, (ii) usage data and (iii) hardware environment.

Instacart Medium

Partners who have implemented or integrated certain Instacart services on their websites or applications may also let us collect information about your use of their sites or applications or share such information with us.

GitHub Medium

We collect data about your interactions with the Services, such as IP address, device information, session details, date and time of requests, device type and ID, operating system and application version...

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▸ View Original Clause Language DOCUMENT RECORD
"
we may collect information about your location and travel (or lack thereof) even when you are not using the app, to tell you when to leave for planned or predicted drives...

— Excerpt from Waze's Waze Privacy Policy

Applicable regulations

CCPA/CPRA
California, USA
Connecticut Data Privacy Act Amendments
US-CT
CAN-SPAM
United States Federal
ePrivacy Directive
European Union
FTC Act Section 5
United States Federal
GDPR
European Union
Indiana Consumer Data Protection Act
US-IN
Kentucky Consumer Data Protection Act
US-KY
Universal Opt-Out Mechanism Expansion 2026
US

Provision details

Document information
Document
Waze Privacy Policy
Entity
Waze
Document last updated
May 5, 2026
Tracking information
First tracked
July 9, 2026
Last verified
July 9, 2026
Record ID
CA-P-039827
Document ID
CA-D-00323
Evidence Provenance
Source URL
Wayback Machine
Content hash (SHA-256)
937770f9c88757454718c0d4496325fb56387cdd9ad4d299ff06ed4533aed7e5
Analysis generated
July 9, 2026 07:05 UTC
Methodology
Evidence
✓ Snapshot stored   ✓ Hash verified
Citation Record
Entity: Waze
Document: Waze Privacy Policy
Record ID: CA-P-039827
Captured: 2026-07-09 07:05:51 UTC
SHA-256: 937770f9c8875745…
URL: https://conductatlas.com/platform/waze/waze-privacy-policy/provision/CA-P-039827/location-collected-when-app-not-in-use/
Accessed: July 12, 2026
Permanent archival reference. Stable identifier suitable for legal filings, compliance documentation, and research citation.
Classification
Severity
High
Categories

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Built from archived source documents, structured governance mappings, and historical version tracking.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does Waze's Location Collected When App Not in Use clause do?

Data collection is not limited to active app use; Waze may gather location data as background activity, extending its reach beyond sessions the user consciously initiates.

How does this clause affect you?

Your location and travel data may be collected by Waze even when you are not actively using the app.

How many platforms have this type of clause?

ConductAtlas has identified this type of provision across 299 platforms. See the full comparison.

Is ConductAtlas affiliated with Waze?

No. ConductAtlas is an independent monitoring service. We are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Waze.