> I have a feeling that if WhatsApp were recording their users' locations in order to provide a more advanced location-aware version of the same strategy, peopl

> I have a feeling that if WhatsApp were recording their users' locations in order to provide a more advanced location-aware version of the same strategy, people would not be very happy about that. They don't need to record your location. WhatsApp client can just query your IP address and silence the call-prohibiting UX if it finds out you're outside Saudi address space. This is an exceedingly obvious solution with no effect on user privacy.