Waze plans to improve traffic conditions and reports with a new government exchange program that will have it exchange data with partners.
The program, called "Connected Citizens," will feature participation from local governments from around the world, according to CNET. Anonymous, crowd-sourced traffic data will be collected in real time and given to government agencies, which will give Waze information on public projects, pre-planned road closures and repairs, and construction plans in return.
The announcement of the program follows a year after the community-based traffic and navigation app was bought by search giant Google.
Waze's GPS-based smartphone app lets users know when there are changes to traffic conditions, or if there are any accidents or police activity ahead of them, CNET reported. Users will also receive suggestions on faster and better routes to get to their destination.
The first 10 partners will be Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) Barcelona (Spain and the Government of Catalonia), Jakarta (Indonesia), Tel Aviv (Israel), San Jose (Costa Rica), Boston, the State of Florida, the State of Utah, the New York Police Department, and Los Angeles County, The Next Web reported.
Waze said that the Connected Citizens partners will need to "prove their dedication to citizen engagement and commit to use Waze data to improve efficiency."
Di-Ann Eisnor, the company's head of Growth, said at an event celebrating the program's unveiling that public alerts, such as accidents and closures, will be the only form of data to be collected, The Next Web reported.
"We don't share anything about that, such as where individuals are located and who they are," she said.
Eisnor added that Waze will not sell the data, adding that the company keeps the information "clean by making sure we don't have a business model around it."
