Proofs? Their privacy policy, the fact that Google is an advertising company, the fact that the "data sharing" of iOS gets leaked regularly and they’re never sold basically
They collect data, but they either use it for recommendations if you’ve enabled (or rather not disabled) that, else they use it for insight and telemetry to get anonymous or pseudonymous with limited lifespan usage data
Obviously, anything non E2EE going to USA servers can be considered compromised and in this context, yea, it’s bad, but it’s not all of it and Google phones a lot more data home
They make a significant margin on them, but note that material cost isn’t the only cost involved. Development and R&D should be included in the price. Same goes for taxes, and different spendings like renting the workspace..
If your cheap phone is made by underpaid workers in China, then you have a part of the answer. Those cheap phones sell your data to make their margin. Some others charge you premium because they’re good and they know it. Obviously they’re making good profit on them, but I wouldn’t say it’s "so much"
But good that you switched! from my experience it’s very inferior to gmaps when talking about public transports or estimating traffic (I believe it doesn’t account for it)
Then it’s up to how much one values having slightly better privacy over the rest. You can’t blame someone wanting the best of both worlds without too much effort but at a higher price
Besides, iOS has had a relatively good interface and the best chips and energy efficiency, one of the best cameras, but ofc lacks in other areas
I still believe the majority here don’t know shit and repeat stuff like the video from The Hated One, which only apply if you run a custom Android ROM, and even then, it’s based on their opinion only and no metrics or real data to back it up
They use the data for App Store recommendations and for insights
Many open source and privacy respecting services collect your data as well. Many distros or software have some sort of anonymous or pseudonymous data collection
Apple is not great in terms of privacy, but it’s a lot better than stock or mainstream Android when comparing usability and ease of use. Should you go the custom ROM route, then it can be the other way around, but I don’t believe most people criticizing iOS here run a custom ROM that improves their privacy
GrapheneOS helps for example, but you’re still tied to their proprietary Google play services that’s probably full of tracking, unless you’re one of the few that don’t use play services at all
MicroG is probably better for privacy and anonymity. Less secure, but that’s another issue.
I meant @Axolotl_cpp@lemmy.ml