OSINT Researcher Exposes Global Surveillance System Exploiting Waze Navigation Data

22.01.2026

An OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) researcher has successfully developed a comprehensive surveillance system capable of tracking individuals across more than 60 countries, including Russia, by exploiting vulnerabilities in the Waze navigation application. The most concerning aspect of this discovery is that users inadvertently expose themselves through their own actions within the platform.

The researcher engineered several automated scripts that enable real-time location tracking of any individual user. The system's methodology relies on correlating user-generated traffic reports with timestamps from public traffic camera footage. By cross-referencing the temporal data of user submissions regarding road conditions with synchronized recordings from traffic surveillance cameras, the tracking mechanism can pinpoint specific individuals with remarkable accuracy.

This revelation highlights critical privacy vulnerabilities in crowdsourced navigation platforms, where users voluntarily contribute data without fully understanding the potential security implications. The incident underscores the growing concerns surrounding:

• Metadata exposure in location-based services
• Cross-platform data correlation techniques
• OSINT capabilities in modern digital environments
• User privacy in crowdsourced applications
• Global surveillance potential through publicly available data

The research demonstrates how seemingly innocuous user interactions can be weaponized for large-scale tracking operations, raising significant questions about data protection mechanisms in navigation services.

Source: https://x.com/Harrris0n/status/2014197314571952167?s=20

Tags: privacy surveillance OSINT Waze Location Tracking

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