So, are Apple operating systems actually considerably better in terms of privacy? I’ve been considering making the switch for both privacy and security reasons, but I’m not really sure it’s worth the cost and hassle. I’m currently on an iPhone (recently switched because I had a Pixel 7 with… issues, but that’s longer story) and I’m trying to decide if it’s worth it to fully switch over to the Apple ecosystem.
Not really. The privacy chain from worst to best is
- default Android
- IOS
- DeGoogled Android (LineageOS, GrapheneOS or similar)
Out of curiosity, how far apart would you say LineageOS and iOS are in terms of privacy?
Quite a bit. Apple is a “we collect it, we just dont let anyone else but us have it” where Lineage is more of a “we dont collect it and would have nobody to share it with if we did”. Mind i am speaking of lineageos with no gapps package. Installing any gapps at all completely defeats the point
LineageOS itself is just as private as AOSP and the Google core stack you might flash along it.
I have not found my source yet but once I’ve read about some Google telemetry within AOSP but that might be less than iOS on default settings sends. With Google core services you will definitely have more data collected on the Android side though.