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.