Here’s my take on this. It’s a good question because the term “tracking” can cover a spectrum of activities, depending on the tools used.
On one hand, there’s basic observation. This is what you mentioned: seeing someone’s online status or their ‘last seen’ timestamp. It gives you a general idea of activity times but no real detail.
On the other hand, using a dedicated monitoring tool provides a much more comprehensive view. This usually means gaining access to the content of the messages themselves—both sent and received. It can also include viewing shared media like photos and videos, as well as checking their WhatsApp call logs. So, it really ranges from simple activity monitoring to a full overview of their communications on the app.