We need to use WhatsApp because everyone that we have to do with, uses that. It's not that I have a profound desire to use WhatsApp or Signal or Telegram or Viber or Messenger and so on. It's also not that I have any pleasure whatsoever using any of the aforementioned over another. My brother doesn't have the time to think and take care of WhatsApp's privacy changes. He doesn't simply have the time; he has two jobs. He wants to message me, and I don't have WhatsApp? Will he send me an e-mail? Nope, forget about it, we're not in the very early 2000s when even Windows Messenger or whatever that was called back then didn't exist. What's more, I can't force anyone to use an application simply because I am supposedly the only one using it. So, I can't ask my brother to install Signal if I am one of the very few on his 300 plus contacts using it.
Likewise, my supervisor won't have the time to send me an e-mail "you'll be picked up at 5:10 PM for work today", simply because I don't want to allow Facebook or another entity access to my data. I use WhatsApp because everyone uses it, and if everyone switches to another platform, then I'll have to be there as well. Maybe tomorrow my contacts will switch to Viber, (an application I hate like hell), and I'll do the same because I wanna be in contac with them.

@28, I have plenty of options available but that comes down to what other people use, since every platform is used for a specific reason. For messaging WhatsApp seems to be the most common and convenient and people are likely to contact you there. I have all but Viber and Signal and Snapchat installed on my phone and I get the most messages on WhatsApp, second being messenger. I also have Instagram but people will contact me there only when they react to a story I've posted and me being sociable asking them how are you starts a conversation that won't last long anyway. As for other things, I have a mobile plan that let's me make calls and send messages for free through all the EU countries, but I send messages to people only when they are not reachable via WhatsApp, which is very rare these days. I also think that the more you stop using these apps, the less contacted you'll be, since people are lazy to contact you through means of communication that they don't have. Like no one is going to install Discord just to contact me, only because I like Discord.
And then, there's this trend that people will contact you many times by seeing that you have posted a picture somewhere. This happens to me very often. So it will be like: hey, haven't seen you in a while, are you free today for a walk? Come visit me soon, and so on. That is what I get and although I don't like this way of interaction, that's how it is. What I really like is when people send you good wishes on any of the platforms through photos: Hello, I hope you're doing well. I wish you a great day wherever you are.
I really appreciate these types of messages.

@30, talk about ultra paranoia. If your that paranoid, get off the internet.

For me, it's because I don't want them having a ton of unnecessary data that some hacker will eventually breech and use to fuck up my life, or give some potential future stalker an easy way to find me.  Sure there is always risk, but why increase it if I don't have to?  It's crazy to me how much this is just excepted now.

That, and I don't appreciate being lied to and manipulated.  If they were to explain in plane English exactly what data was being collected and why, and I could maybe turn some of that off but lose access to parts of the app that needed it, well that would be just fine.  Our data is their payment for our use of the service, so why on earth would it be okay for them to not clearly lay out the fees.  People wouldn't except that in any other transaction, so why this one.

Also, crap like browser fingerprinting, ultra targeted ads, and tons of third party trackers by default?  That shit just isn't okay.  It's not as if they can't still make money by toning it back a bit, they simply refuse to do so because of greed, and the public has grown numb to it.  That price is simply too high to be considered balanced, we aren't getting as much as we are giving, and you can especially see this in how bad the customer service is for free tier users on Google services, or all the sweeping moderation decisions and badly staffed mod teams on social media platforms which the public doesn't get any input on.

If you want to just bend over and take it because that's how it's been for so long, be my guest, but I personally wish to make it clear that I'm not okay with that bullshit (at least within reason) because staying silent equals assent in their eyes.
Big tech is already becoming far too powerful when it comes to social and economic influence and I don't even want to think about how it could be in 30 years if we allow our selves to simply be rolled   over.  I'm not going to help speed it along any more than what I feel is necessary to live in the modern world as someone without enough money to be very choosy.

If you feel like I'm feeding you some kind of alarmist science fiction conspiracy here, I would suggest doing some research of your own, and I don't mean on wacky blogs or social media, I mean from reliable, low bias news sources.  It doesn't take long for the average person to realize that yes, to a disturbing degree, the monster is in fact quite real, even if it might not look the way you first expected it to and it isn't fully grown yet.
I understand that many people don't have much of a choice not to use these services, but checking your privacy settings and tightening up your personal security is worth the time.  Get with the times and don't be complacent, that's exactly what these corporations (not to mention hackers) have relied on for years.

Well obviously, but I'd rather give my info to only those I have to, not some randoms with forced arbitration  and "no liability even in case of foreknowledge" clauses.
I certainly trust Google and Apple with my info from a hacking point of view more than I do most small online businesses, and it's pretty obvious that certain portions of the government are far outmatched in security even, but if I can keep my online identity separate from my real one except for those times it's necessary, why shouldn't I.  It's not that hard.., you just have to care.

I understand that much of this is out of my hands and up to the organizations holding my data, but that's why I avoid giving them anything extra in the first place.
That, and just because one account gets hacked doesn't mean half my others will be as well, because I try to keep them separated, and never rely on one service too much.  It's about reduction, not complete protection, that would be impossible and I know that.

The people are just parranoied.

signal just got blocked here by government authorities.

Also, like, how is this a good thing? I'm confused.