Facebook in talks to buy Waze mapping app for $1 billion: reports

Reports from three Hebrew-language news outlets say that Facebook is in negotiations to purchase Waze, a mapping application headquartered in Israel.

The move is seen as a bid to increase the social media site’s mobile capabilities, much in the same manner it did when it purchased Instagram for $1 billion in August 2012.

The Waze deal is thought to be worth $1 billion as well, reports TechCrunch. Israeli newspaper Haaretz says the deal would be half in cash and half in Facebook shares.

Previously, there were rumours that Apple was in talks to purchase Waze, but that deal never happened.

For anyone who hasn’t used Waze, the app allows users to share real-time traffic and road information with other users. It also tracks location, which allows people who are carpooling or driving to the same location to co-ordinate.

However, Waze’s location-tracking capacity is already causing some observers to raise alarm about Facebook collecting even more data about its users: "The location data will give Facebook one more point of reference for targeting its increasingly invasive advertisements," writes The Atlantic Wire.