Definitely not, we got lured into it by the original WA owners under (later) false pretenses. Back when we would just pay a euro one time, or every year with a big focus on privacy.

Now it's just everywhere, helpdesks, schools, classes, parents, sportsclubs. All WA groups sadly. We even have this: [0], like it's some government sanctioned platform. Disgusting.

I am getting more and more people into Signal though. Some geeks on Element.io.

[0]: https://duckduckgo.com/?t=ffab&q=attentie+buurtpreventie+wha...

I don't understand what this sign is supposed to mean, can you give some deeper context?

Neighborhood watch using Whatsapp.

Yes, I can also Google translate. That wasn’t the question. The question was: “What does that mean? And why is it particularly nefarious/concerning?”

If I said “Neighborhood watch at /r/MyNeighborNameWatchDiscussion on reddit”, is that concerning too?

It’s our government endorsing the use of an (in my opinion) horrible and closed platform. It’s public money being spend to promote a commercial company that’s not even Dutch and has a horrible privacy track record. Our local pirate party seems to agree, I’m always glad I voted for them when I read stuff like this: [0], what’s perhaps more crazy is that in that piece it is argued that WhatsApp is just how we call group chat apps :s.

[0] https://blog.iusmentis.com/2021/05/10/mag-een-gemeente-whats...

Hey, my neighborhood also has a sign like that! The WhatsApp dominance is the network effect in full force. I have WhatsApp, SMS, Signal, Telegram, Element/Matrix. Telegram is used just for some nerdy international group and the API from my smart oower meter, the rest is WhatsApp only.