EU Sovereignty Score
Non-EU vendorMaps & NavigationHeadquarters: US

Waze: sovereignty score and 8 European alternatives

Waze is a navigation app for smartphones that provides turn-by-turn voice directions and live traffic information. Much of its data comes from drivers themselves, who report accidents, congestion, hazards and police presence and who can also edit the map. The app works with Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, and the Waze for Cities programme lets public authorities exchange traffic data with Waze. It is delivered as a free consumer app and web service.

Waze Mobile Ltd., the data controller named in the privacy policy, is an Israeli company in Tel Aviv, but Waze is owned by Google, an American company that is a subsidiary of Alphabet. Waze states that it stores data on servers around the world, with hosting providers in the EU and the US, and that it may share personal information with Google group companies. Location and speed data from the app is sent to Waze's servers. For a European organisation, the American parent means that US legal access rules such as the CLOUD Act can be relevant.

See the 8 European alternatives ↓Assess your stack with Waze pre-selected
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Sovereignty score
27 / 1000 = high exposure
100 = sovereign
  • Jurisdiction SOV-210
    Headquartered in the US: CLOUD Act and FISA 702
  • Data residency SOV-350
    Hosting inside and outside Europe (US, EU)
  • Cryptographic key sovereignty SOV-320
    Key management with a non-European vendor
  • Freedom from lock-in SOV-640
    Closed source: switching requires data migration
  • Source & runtime sovereignty SOV-4 · SOV-615
    Closed source, runtime with the vendor

SOV codes: the matching objective in the European Commission's Cloud Sovereignty Framework. Official source

How the score is calculated

Facts and evidence

Last checked October 8, 2026
HeadquartersUS (US)Verified by hand
EU adequacy decisionOnly for companies individually certified under the EU-US Data Privacy FrameworkVerified by hand
Sovereignty modelVendor-hosted (non-EU)Verified by hand
Data hostingUS, EUVerified by hand
Open-sourceNoVerified by hand
GDPR-compliantNoVendor-stated
Hosting signalGOOGLE-CLOUD-PLATFORM - Google LLC, US (US)Technically measured
CategoryMaps & Navigation
TypeProduct
Websitewaze.com ↗

The hosting signal shows the network that serves the vendor's website, often a CDN, and not necessarily where the service or your data is hosted. How we verify · Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Top EU-based & GDPR-compliant alternatives to Waze

The European alternatives to Waze come from our knowledge base of over 6,200 vendors. We only list vendors headquartered in the EU or the EEA; fully European-owned vendors rank before vendors with a foreign owner. For each alternative you see the country, the open-source status and a short description.

Score per alternative: 0 = high exposure, 100 = sovereign

37 European Maps & Navigation vendors are in the catalogue. View the whole category · Submit an alternative · View category on the map

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Why digital sovereignty matters with Waze

Waze is headquartered in the United States. US vendors fall under the CLOUD Act and FISA 702: US authorities can compel access to data, even when that data sits in a European data centre. That is the core of the jurisdictional exposure in our model.

Waze hosts data in US, EU. Exactly what stays within the EU — and what does not — is defined by the vendor's data processing agreement and sub-processor list, not by a setting you control yourself; check those documents for the precise scope, including backups, logs and support access.

Waze is closed source and hosted by the vendor. The encryption keys and the runtime sit with the vendor and switching requires data migration. Ask about bring-your-own-key, export options and open standards.

What this means for your organisation depends on your whole stack and context. The free assessment weighs Waze together with your other vendors and gives a total score, a heatmap and the main risk drivers.

Frequently asked questions

What is the best European alternative to Waze?

It depends on your use case. Strong EU alternatives to Waze include HERE WeGo, Magic Earth and Komoot. On this page you can compare 8 EU alternatives by jurisdiction, data residency and open-source status.

Are there open-source alternatives to Waze?

Yes. Open-source EU alternatives to Waze include Organic Maps, OsmAnd, OpenStreetMap (self-host tiles), BRouter and GraphHopper. These keep your data fully under your own control and let you self-host if you want to.

Is Waze GDPR-compliant and where is the data hosted?

Waze is headquartered in US and hosts data in US, EU. Its GDPR compliance is limited or unclear. For full EU data residency the EU alternatives on this page usually offer more certainty.

Details and sources

Verified by handHeadquarters, owner, hosting locations and licence have been checked by us against public sources. Free of charge and for every vendor, not a paid label. Nothing in this knowledge base is taken over automatically. Last checked on October 8, 2026.

Sources

Public sources used in the latest check of this record.

Compliance evidence

The links below point to the vendor's own public documents. We only record what we found: a missing link means "not found publicly", not "not compliant".

No public compliance evidence has been recorded for this vendor yet. Do you know its DPA or subprocessor list? Something wrong? Suggest a correction

Digital sovereignty in Maps & Navigation

Maps & Navigation: Maps, route planning and navigation services. In this category the choice of vendor determines who has legal access to your data, where that data lives and how easily you can switch later.

Also in this category

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8 European alternatives to Waze — GDPR-compliant & EU-hosted · EU Sovereignty Score