Do you have any evidence the iOS operating system is better in any significant way? The article you linked focused on the apps available in the store, not the phone OS itself (which is what this article is about).

Apps draft off what the OS allows, iOS keeps adding features at the OS level (do not track, “app tracking health” metrics, advertising opt out, etc). At best Android grudgingly offers some of this after the fact, at worst does what this article offers.

Nevermind that iOS provides an extensive list of system-level data collection toggles. Don't want to contribute traffic data? Done. Don't want to contribute cellular/wifi location data? Done. Don't want your phone collecting data about what stores you visit and when? Done.

With Android, you don't have a choice for any of that. It just does it. Google Maps constantly slurps up every bit of location related information it can, whether you like it or not.

iOS even allows for forcing apps to only have access to coarse location data - it's off by a few miles - as well as only granting location data when the app is actually in use. Also options you don't get with Android.

The only thing I miss after switching: Android allowed for controlling not just cellular data but background data.

What the OS allows for third-party apps and what the OS allows for the software of the manufacturer are completely different.

This article is about Samsung's OS sending data to Samsung, Google's OS sending data to Google, etc. All of this data is fairly above and beyond what would be available to an app on any of the mentioned operating systems. Just because iOS disallows apps from collecting certain classes of data, does not mean it does not collect that same data to send to Apple.

Is it possible the feeling is at least in part the result of marketing? Not trying to be inflammatory, but apple does spend a lot of money running excellent ads about how iPhones are private.

iOS collects and transmits all MAC addresses on the local network even with location services off, there is no way to disable this:

> iOS shares with Apple the handset Bluetooth UniqueChipID, the Secure Element ID (associated with the Secure Element used for Apple Pay and contactless payment) and the Wifi MAC addresses of nearby devices e.g. of other devices in a household of the home gateway. When the handset location setting is enabled these MAC addresses are also tagged with the GPS location.[0]

[0] https://www.scss.tcd.ie/doug.leith/apple_google.pdf

So the answer is clearly that while they are both bad for privacy with the default configuration, some Android devices provide more control over the device and thus options for disabling telemetry.

One area that iOS can improve on is the linking of app downloads to Apple IDs. I don't want every app I've ever downloaded on iOS to be permanently recorded in my Apple ID. With Android, I can use Aurora Store or sideload apps that were originally published on the Play Store without needing a Google account at all. Apple should implement a way to anonymously download free apps, whether from the App Store or from elsewhere.

How anyone can say iOS favors privacy with a straight face after the CSAM debacle is beyond me.

iOS is just as bad, if not worse. See https://gist.github.com/iosecure/357e724811fe04167332ef54e73...

If iOS were an open-source project, we wouldn't need to spend so long speculating what code is running on the devices that we own.