They almost certainly do not have privacy as a central focus beyond its utility as a marketing bullet.
It's just more embrace, extend, extinguish.
Facebook is doubling down on Messenger. They don't want to support multiple messengers. As soon as they can find a way to convert those pesky privacy-conscious Europeans to Messenger, WhatsApp is dead.
Telling people to move from Watsapp to Telegram nowadays is bad advice. for any point of view.
> They almost certainly do not have privacy as a central focus beyond its utility as a marketing bullet.
That's certainly one big concern I have with WhatsApp (and that's why I don't use it).
The other thing is WhatsApp is not as good as Telegram in UX like the GP claims it to be. As one example, Telegram has desktop clients that do not need the phone to be around after a one time account verification, whereas WhatsApp, in my knowledge, always needs the phone to be around for the desktop or web app to be useful.