Coincidentally, nothing is stopping privacy-conscious users to use, for example, DuckDuckGo. It's right there in the options on both macOS and Safari.
Finally, it's pretty absurd to say that Tim Cook/Apple don't believe in privacy. Out of all major consumer software/hardware manufacturers, Apple easily takes the most privacy-conscious stance of them all - which isn't saying much until you see the extent that they've gone to protect user privacy - ranging from the Secure Enclave and the T2 chip to fingerprinting and tracking prevention in Safari 12.
DDG is actually smoother, it loads faster and is more lightweight on phone browsers.
You can see the difference between these two statements in action in cases where Apple absolutely needs government approval and market share (China) or a good product (search engine / Google), they immediately ditch this "human right".
The point about maps feels rather non germane as apple does have its own maps product.
I didn't say anything about maps.
Can't just be that as others sell more billions of phones, right?
> I didn't say anything about maps.
You're right, I misread that part of your post.
[1] https://freedom.to/blog/freedom-has-been-temporarily-removed...
It's a bummer for fans of Freedom that it got blocked, but it's not accurate to extrapolate that into some general Apple opposition to ad blocking.
> “We’re not going to traffic in your personal life,” Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, said in an MSNBC interview. “Privacy to us is a human right. It’s a civil liberty.” (Mr. Cook’s criticisms infuriated Mr. Zuckerberg, who later ordered his management team to use only Android phones, since the operating system has far more users than Apple’s.)