A lot of privacy guides suggest avoiding Telegram. I understand that in its default mode there’s no E2EE (and no E2EE for groups at all). If people I know don’t wanttko use Signal, isn’t Telegram the lesser evil given it’s nicer privacy policy (than other popular ones)?
Say I use the FOSS version of it.
Well, that’s true. But if there’s published server code, it’s at least better than none.
There’s a point where you either decide to use the service, or just withdraw from any of them at all, if you go down that road.