Waze OSINT Tracker

A worldwide data collection tool for Waze traffic events. Demonstrates location privacy risks in crowdsourced traffic applications.

What It Does

Captures Waze traffic reports (police, jams, hazards, accidents, road closures) from 5 continents including username, GPS coordinates, and timestamps. By collecting this data over time, it's possible to build movement profiles of individual users - demonstrating privacy implications of Waze's crowdsourced model.

Based on research by Covert Labs

Quick Start

# Install
pip install waze-logs

# Run (starts collector + web UI in background)
waze start -b

# Open http://localhost:5000

That's it. The web UI shows a live map with events streaming in from around the world.

Additional Commands

waze --help      # See all available commands
waze stop        # Stop the collector
waze logs        # Watch live output

Privacy & Ethics

This tool is for security research and education - demonstrating privacy risks in Waze's design.

Do not use for:

• Stalking or tracking individuals
• Publishing identifiable data
• Any illegal surveillance

License

MIT

Annex: Sample Data

Collected Events

Here's what the raw collected data looks like - real events captured from the Waze network:

Event Types Breakdown

From a sample collection of ~365,000 events:

HAZARD       158,860  (43.5%)  - Road hazards, objects, weather
JAM           82,102  (22.5%)  - Traffic congestion reports
POLICE        60,615  (16.6%)  - Police sightings
ROAD_CLOSED   53,134  (14.6%)  - Road closures, construction
ACCIDENT       9,358   (2.6%)  - Crash reports
CHIT_CHAT        885   (0.2%)  - Community messages

API Response Example

The /api/events endpoint returns data like this:

{
  "events": [
    {
      "id": "eu_12345",
      "username": "driver_abc123",
      "latitude": 52.3676,
      "longitude": 4.9041,
      "timestamp": "2026-01-24T10:30:00+00:00",
      "report_type": "POLICE",
      "subtype": "POLICE_VISIBLE",
      "region": "europe",
      "grid_cell": "amsterdam"
    }
  ],
  "total": 1
}

Coverage Statistics

The collector scans 8,656 grid cells across 5 continents:

CLI Output Sample

$ waze start -b
Collector started in background
Web UI available at http://localhost:5000
Use 'waze logs' to watch output or 'waze stop' to stop

$ waze logs
[14:32:15] + POLICE       @  40.41680,   -3.70380 - user_a1b2c3d4
[14:32:17] + JAM          @  48.85660,    2.35220 (JAM_HEAVY_TRAFFIC) - driver_x7y8z9
[14:32:19] + HAZARD       @  51.50740,   -0.12780 (HAZARD_ON_ROAD) - london_user_42