Human Rights Group Warns About Misuse of Iranian Users' Data

The Minister of Communications announced that the judicial order prohibiting taxi drivers from using the 'Waze' application was due to the presence of 'Israeli shareholders' in it. However, the Human Rights Campaign in Iran states that this issue shows how users' personal information on their mobile phones can be 'easily misused with judicial orders and compliance from companies.' According to Mehr News Agency, Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi published these reasons on his personal Twitter page on Wednesday, December 1, referring to a court order to block this application issued last year by a judge in Mashhad, stating that 'the reason is its Israeli shareholders. The increased installation of this app raises the company's value, and based on this, a judicial order has been issued.' He stated that the number of Waze users in Iran exceeds half a million and added that 'recently, the company's shares were purchased by Google, and apparently, part of its shares is still held by an Israeli company.' Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi wrote: 'If we consider that the growth of Israeli companies contributes to the economy of a regime that has always acted against the Iranian people, from sanctions to terrorist actions, naturally we will be more cautious in using this tool.' According to the Minister of Communications, despite the blocking of Waze in Iran since last year, 'many users, especially online taxi drivers, continue to use this tool with the help of VPNs due to its updated capabilities.' He mentioned that the total number of online taxi drivers in Iran is about 20,000 and that the legal implementation of this judicial order by online taxi companies should be examined legally. Meanwhile, the Human Rights Campaign in Iran believes that 'collecting evidence of crime is among the duties of judicial officers,' but 'Snapp is not a judicial officer obligated to enforce judicial orders.' Mehr News Agency reported on November 27 that internet taxi services had requested their drivers not to use the Waze navigation application starting from December 1 this year, citing 'a judicial order.' According to this report, a notice was sent to online taxi drivers warning them to remove the Waze navigator from their phones by November 30, 96, to prevent their service from being deactivated and to use domestic navigators instead. This notice referred to Snapp and Tap30, which are two active smart taxi request systems in Iran. They have free applications for iPhone and Android phones, facilitating communication between users and drivers. Meanwhile, Waze is a navigation application similar to Google Maps, with the difference that users can report traffic-related events such as accidents, police presence, or surveillance cameras on the map and inform each other. In the meantime, according to ILNA news agency, the Secretary of the Supreme Council of Cyberspace also warned Waze users on Wednesday to use similar domestic software before 'restrictive measures are taken.' Abolhassan Firouzabadi, without mentioning these 'restrictive measures,' added that 'in the Waze software, information related to people's privacy is utilized.' However, he also stated that 'currently, blocking foreign messaging apps is not on the agenda.' Abolhassan Firouzabadi, referring to the blocking of the Waze application by the Criminal Identification Working Group, announced that the reason for this decision was the issue of 'ownership.' He stated that this software was blocked once due to being under Israeli ownership, and now 'its ownership has been transferred to the US.' In October of this year, after several months of lifting the filter on this navigation application, the Deputy Attorney General and Secretary of the Criminal Identification Working Group in Iran had warned of the possibility of blocking this software again. Abdolsamad Khorram Abadi stated on October 17 to ISNA news agency that the infrastructure company in the Ministry of Communications had been asked to filter the Waze software again. This judicial official had previously referred to the Waze application as Israeli, stating that installing it on a phone allows access to all personal information of the user, including travel and geographical location, which could pose security issues for the people and the country. Meanwhile, the International Human Rights Campaign in Iran pointed out that the Snapp application has warned its customers that if they do not delete Waze, 'they will no longer be able to use Snapp.' It stated: 'Given the dominance of judicial and security institutions over the country's internet structure, many users are concerned that Iranian companies {including Snapp} are yielding to requests that lead to violations of their privacy.' According to this report, Snapp's recent action 'not only exacerbates this distrust but also reminds Iranian users how their personal information on their mobile phones can easily be misused with judicial orders and compliance from companies.' The Human Rights Campaign in Iran stated, 'It is unclear what other requests have been made by the Attorney General from Snapp and similar applications, and how much and what information these applications collect from their customers' phones and how they use it.' In this context, the online taxi company Snapp denied 'violating its users' privacy' in a statement on its website, stating: 'Snapp has never had the violation of its users' privacy on its agenda and is only subject to the laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran.' The Snapp application was launched in February 2015 by the private sector and is currently considered one of the most widely used taxi-hailing applications in Iran with 28,000 driver users.