They are. Worse, you can't even opt out of it. On an Android phone, AGPS data collection is opt in. On iOS, there is no way to turn it off.

On an Android phone, you can set an offline maps app as the default. On iOS, every map link will open in Apple Maps, sending data to Apple in the process. On an Android phone, you can set Signal as your default messaging app. On iOS, any time you click an SMS link, it will open in iMessage, which tells Apple the number you want to SMS and check if that user uses iMessage.

Really, anything Apple has said about privacy has been pure marketing for the easily duped.