The difference is that on Android, it is possible to set a default maps app that is entirely local, which means that Android wins on privacy for location tracking. (This is before even considering that AGPS location data collection is mandatory on iOS and merely opt in on Android.)
Besides, most people upload their photos without removing exif data which makes your photo archive the best tracker - every place you went that you cared about at all. Most people also keep pictures forever. You an count the people who opt out of cloud storage for photos on one hand...
The only way you can say iOS wins on privacy is if you listen to marketing instead of what the OS actually does.
1. Aside from losing on location privacy, as I showed above,
2. iOS also loses on message privacy because you can't use a secure messaging system like Signal by default,
3. on tracker and advertising privacy because you can't install a system-wide adblocker like Blokada,
4. on user privacy because you can't install an app without an Apple ID,
5. on developer privacy because you can't develop apps for your own device without an Apple ID (and even worse, without a credit card to give up a verified name and address if you don't want to re-sign your apps every week),
6. and on account privacy because Apple does not allow you to delete your account unlike nearly every other service (even Facebook, which comes a close second to Apple as a bad actor) on the Internet.
Sure, you need an Apple ID, but how hard is it to generate a throwaway account for that purpose? Nobody ever said you had to use one that was tied to your actual identity. Heck you can even use different IDs for the App Store vs. iCloud, but anyone who is extremely privacy sensitive would already not be using iCloud. I don’t know where you read that Apple IDs can’t be deleted - on https://privacy.apple.com/ if you sign in there’s a nice big Delete your Account button.
I never said otherwise. Again, you can't install a system-wide adblocker.
> It might not be the system default app, but I’m not sure how that’s a fundamental loss of privacy
Because if it's harder to use on every use, you won't use it.
> Sure, you need an Apple ID, but how hard is it to generate a throwaway account for that purpose?
In that respect, it's exactly like a Google account. I never claimed otherwise. The fact that it's tied to things you do like apps you download and where you search allows deanonymization, just like in the Google case.
> Nobody ever said you had to use one that was tied to your actual identity.
Except if you want to build apps for your own device that you don't want to reinstall weekly. On Android, nobody has to know anything about you, even if you want to develop for your own device, which should not result in loss of privacy on a platform that respects privacy.
> I don’t know where you read that Apple IDs can’t be deleted - on https://privacy.apple.com/ if you sign in there’s a nice big Delete your Account button.
Thanks for this link. Somebody created an Apple ID with my email address, and after I took over their account, I could not figure out how to delete it from the Apple ID Account page, and a search doesn't return that privacy page. It's way harder to find than Facebook's delete account page.
Guess how hard it was? If you start from scratch (i.e. without an existing Google cookie thing your new account to your old one), you have to put in a valid, non-disposable mobile phone number and get a verification.
On the other hand, I just made an Apple ID with a disposable email address with absolutely no real-word verification required.
> Because if it's harder to use on every use, you won't use it.
I don’t see how a non-default app is really so much harder to use in iOS. I use Google Inbox and Facebook Messenger as my daily drivers (not claiming I’m a privacy focused person, hah), not Apple Mail or iMessage, and I’ve never suffered for it. iOS has surprisingly few places where a “default” actually matters.
> Except if you want to build apps for your own device that you don't want to reinstall weekly. On Android, nobody has to know anything about you, even if you want to develop for your own device, which should not result in loss of privacy on a platform that respects privacy.
This is a fair criticism. Apple developer policies have always been quite annoying - being a developer for the platform myself (own phone apps only, nothing released), it’s definitely not as smooth as Android. Plus with Android I get to do fun kernel hacking stuff which is strictly off-limits with iOS.