Civil servants who defy the immediate ban on Waze could face disciplinary action, national security council (MKN) director-general Datuk Raja Nushirwan Zainal Abidin has said, reported Bernama.
Department heads will oversee compliance with the directive, issued through a circular by chief secretary to the government (KSN) Tan Sri Shamsul Azri Abu Bakar, said the director-general of MKN.
“The directive takes effect immediately. Its implementation will generally be left to individual department heads. Any breach of a directive issued by KSN carries disciplinary implications,” he said.
The director-general of MKN urged civil servants to stop using Waze immediately to prevent external parties from exploiting their movement data. The government adopted a phased approach, prioritising public education while balancing national data security concerns with individual freedoms, he said.
“We must always balance security concerns with human rights, freedom of expression and freedom of choice. Under this approach, we leave it to Malaysians to make their own decisions,” Raja Nushirwan said.
The government will periodically assess the effectiveness of the approach before deciding whether further measures are necessary, the MKN D-G continued.
He cautioned that an immediate nationwide ban on Waze could send a negative signal to application developers and the broader information and communications technology (ICT) sector.
Yesterday, the Malaysian government issued a ban on civil servants’ use of the Waze nagivation app, taking into account the position of Waze Mobile Ltd, the controller of the app’s user data, which it says is incorporated and operates under Israeli law.
Today, the Malaysian government stated that it is not imposing a blanket ban on Waze as it seeks to strike a balance between national security and personal freedoms.
The banning of the app for civil servants was part of a phased approach to addressing security concerns associated with it, said the MKN director-general. Earlier today, Raja Nushirwan did not confirm if Waze will be banned completely in the future, but noted that nothing could be ruled out when it came to national security.
