I use Instagram as the one social media platform that all my friends are on, plus I sometimes watch reels to kill time. However, as a privacy-conscious person, this is obviously not great for privacy. Is there, then, any good reason to still abstain from using WhatsApp?
use Signal instead – same encryption that Whatsapp copied but without Facebook’s backdoors built in
the idea is don’t put all your eggs into one (corporate) basket – your first choice should be privacy-oriented FOSS apps, but if you have to use privacy-invading apps, spread out the love among different corporations, make them put at least some token effort into compiling your profile
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Using any of the so-called “Magnificent 7” puts you “on the radar,” so no, there’s no point avoiding WhatsApp if you’re already Meta’d up with Insta.
Don’t use either.
Instagram can be used with only a login and email, so you can be anonymous without any contact info.
If you use the Instagram app with live cell service then it’s already copied all of your contact info from scanning phone details.
That doesn’t mean you might as well register your number with Whatsapp, in the same way that someone can use Instagram without ever using Facebook or Messenger.
I do agree about try to use Signal in place of Whaysapp, nit along side Whatsapp, if for no other reason than to compartmentalize your data and your info. Think of it this way, seperating security from privacy, Whatsapp is far better than plain texting for security. If you want privacy and unrecoverable conversations, it starts at Signal, but still goes higher from there if a person is open to learning more technical apps like SimpleX.
