While we're getting a bit into "flame war" territory, it's hard to argue that the current iteration of Android is an "open platform"; practically speaking, most of the useful features of the OS are hidden in the (closed) Google Play Services. Yes, you can go for a custom ROM, but not on all devices and most people don't want to deal with the effort/UX downgrade.

What makes you think they're getting the data from Apple? The entire OS is sandboxed and siloed out the proverbial wazoo, and Apple is demonstrably a very pro-privacy company that doesn't allow most forms of carrier fuckery.

Apple has the power here. Verizon needs the iPhone on their network more than Apple needs to support Verizon as a carrier.

If you can demonstrate that, you could use that knowledge to make a ton of money in various ways.

If you can't, bluntly, you're blowing smoke.

Which is it?