Well, this is /MildlyInfuriating and not /Privacy, so I’ll just say that I very much don’t like Facebook and all its spinoff products (or acquired, in the case of WhatsApp).

I will say, Facebook didn’t spend $21 billion on WhatsApp and not expect some kind of return on that investment. Classic WhatsApp charged $1 a year. There’s no way that’s profitable. I don’t think it asks for that money anymore. I think just selling your data/snooping on your business is enough.

There is a somewhat interesting solution, though it’s hardly cheap, or practical in many cases. Have one phone be your daily driver and you’re signed into it with your personal accounts and you have stuff on it you trust. Then you have another phone that is not so easily trusted. You sign in to the provider (be it Apple or Google) with a dummy account that is not related to you, and you install these apps you don’t trust. You don’t give the phone location permissions, and you don’t activate it as a cell phone (no SIM card or eSIM). You use it as a WiFi device and hotspot it off your phone or home WiFi. Do the shady stuff (e.g. WhatsApp, TikTok, etc.) on that. If your main phone has a VPN on it, even better, because the other phone can use network location to help identify you. If you’re always in different places, good luck with that.