So you never use Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc?
I hear this privacy argument a lot, but billions of people then voluntarily publish the most intimate parts of their lives for all to see.
I've been an Android/Samsung user since 2010 and I can't say I've noticed how my privacy has been stolen. Unlike the people who have posted their holiday photos online and then been robbed. Or posted a photo of their credit card online and been scammed. Or seen a photo of their dog from Instagram being used for a billboard ad.
We're all just a number and there's a lot of information about all of us out there. Simply using an iPhone isn't going to change that.
You might not notice your private information being "stolen" because your freely providing it so you probably wouldn't notice it in the same way as someone who just blatantly stole it from you. But the examples you provide are some extremes that can happen, otherwise it's just a ton of your data residing on their servers but the point is that it is then up to THEM (or whoever steals it from them, or that they give it to) to decide how they want to use it, not you.
I do not use Facebook or Instagram or Whatsapp or any of those other services. The lone exception is Twitter which I do have but It's just a generic account with none of my personal information on it and I don't post to it and I don't advertise it on any other websites, forums or otherwise. I only use it to follow news updates from certain accounts.
Even at its most basic use of "serving you more relevant advertising" why do I want to assist a company in helping me spend more of my money by constantly showing me things that they have determined I am most likely to want or buy???? I'd rather see random ads for which I don't want 99% of the stuff and hold on to my cash as much as possible. In most cases when I encounter a web form or something I do have to enter my information into I falsify virtually all of it to help prevent targeted advertising.
Privacy wise (not necessarily data wise) I have also personally seen several situations where people got themselves in trouble with Facebook especially. I'll never use that garbage. People using Facebook typically have bosses and co-workers and tons of other people who aren't your "friends" and something ends up getting posted that either causes job loss, issues with co-workers at a job or issues with neighbors or other people who happen to be on Facebook as a friend. I have also seen people who posted about being on vacation that had things stolen from their property.
Aside from that, look at how many privacy issues Facebook has had in the past few years. So many unsavory people now have massive amounts of data provided to them by Facebook and can do whatever they want with that. It can aid in phishing attacks, spam calls and other scams. Using that data they could find people older than a certain age that are more likely to fall for phone scams or people within certain age groups and ethnicity that they can target for something that applies to them... Personal data can be used against you in many ways, perhaps in ways nobody is really even exploiting yet but once it's out there then you can't get it back and it might eventually come back to bite you so I'd rather just keep my information to myself and I don't mind avoiding "social media" or most certainly anything Facebook owns in order to do that.
TLDR: There are many privacy issues I have seen by using services that gather mass amounts of data on people so I avoid them as much as possible. Using only an iPhone will not stop privacy issues but using an iPhone in combination with limiting use of those other services and websites as much as possible absolutely will help to keep as much of your private information to yourself as you can.
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Rather than make excuses for its lack of data services (ala Apple), Google is making your data work for you.
Quick analogy... what is easier...?
1. Doing an extremely complex math problem yourself and coming up with the answer?
2. Have someone else just give you the answer?
Obviously #2, and when massive amounts of people pour their personal data into google services then Google will take every single bit of it they can get and then they have the information to come up with their answers (as software/technical improvements/innovations) at a very fast pace.
Apple on the other hand is trying to solve the same problems without the troves of users personal data to get the answers and instead come up with it on their own using the more complex method of anonymous and limited data collection from users. This is obviously more difficult and they will certainly lag behind. However, going forward if they continue with this method, I will trust their services far more and I am willing to pay more for it.
