Whenever I try to get iCloud actually working [1] I kind of wish Apple was actually interested in owning my data ;-)

Rants apart, this fact:

> Apple makes money selling you hardware. Google makes money selling you to advertisers.

has a direct consequence: cloud services made by Apple are generally inferior compared to those made by Google[2].

Now of course if you value privacy over everything you might prefer to save your data locally rather than in the cloud, but I have too many devices lost or broken to go that way.

[1] https://support.apple.com/kb/index?q=backup+could+not+be+com...

[2] http://www.theverge.com/2016/2/3/10900612/walt-mossberg-appl...

Why the downvote? I don't mind but care to elaborate?

> Google makes money selling you to advertisers.

That's a little misleading. Google makes money showing you ads. It's not like I can call up Google and buy billyhoffman's data.

Governments can however.

And with Apple they have a demonstrated history of protecting privacy at any cost. Google not so much.

Umm...

https://www.google.com/transparencyreport/userdatarequests/l...

http://images.apple.com/privacy/docs/government-information-...

There's not that much difference between what the two of them provide to governments as a response to legal requests.

Also note that Apple continues to operate in China while Google refused to cooperate with the government there and gave up huge business potential in that country.

Sure, there's a chance for government abuse of my data, no argument. There are also significant benefits to me for sharing with Google. For me (and I suspect for most Americans), the real benefits exceed the likely costs.

I worry far more about things like getting into a car wreck, falling in the shower, and my crappy diet.