???

Wait? What?

Apple doesn't know what I buy. At least not currently. How can they know that? Only Mastercard and Visa know that.

Maybe Apple could buy that information from Mastercard or Visa? Is that what you're saying?

i never said Apple knows what you buy. They just know a lot about you based on using their devices / services.

I don't know man?

I'd wager that Google, Mastercard, Visa, and AT&T each know way more about me than Apple does. That's not even counting companies like Amazon, Target, etc. It seems to me that with respect to privacy, Apple is the least of my problems.

how is this remotely true?

Apple has nearly nothing on you. Amex knows what I buy, when, and where.

if you're using their products, why would they not know anything about you? using their phone, app store, itunes, news app, maps appointments.. maybe im missing something? I'm not saying they have your purchase history, but they have a lot

Apple have built up a reputation for not knowing this about me as a consumer.

Maybe they do know lots about me, maybe they don’t. A significant part of their public reputation rests on their respecting privacy concerns however. So if it turned out that they were secretly collecting data on me they would take a hit to their public reputation and (very likely) their bottom line.

They are very much incentivised to keep my data private and imho that offers a strong likelihood that they’ll actually do so.

So you did inform yourself about Apples technical implementation of those services and the implications for privacy, or did you just make an uninformed guess to post something?

You are confusing Apple with Google.