As an iOS developer, this is very true indeed. Apple specifically bars developers from using push notifications for ad purposes yet Apple itself does it to push their own Apple Music ads as the article shows.
The CSAM stuff also made me decide to never buy a brand new apple product again and I will basically buy used devices for my development work so less of my money is going towards them. I also got myself an Android phone and a windows Dell laptop recently which I will be putting linux on for non-work purposes.
Also, seems that Windows 10 will go bye bye in 2022 as well and have to decide on which Linux(mandrake seems more user friedly than plain Arch), because W10 disrupts my order of things by consistently rebooting(probably for some small updates) or updating machine during the night, when instead of open apps as I have left them, I have clean log in screen in the morning. Ah, and not going to W11 - not only because of spying, but because I do not wish to spend money for new hardware specifically to Windows, if my old hardware has not been maxed out - in regards to memory.
You can delete the old backups there. It does keep backups of old devices for some reason.
I tend to use this feature though as intended. I dropped my XR off down the front of Stanage Edge. When recovered it was badly damaged. Following Monday in an apple store I recovered the backup onto a new 12 and it was exactly as I’d left the XR configuration wise. Saved me hours of futzing.
The XR did manage to upload all the photos to iCloud when we got in range of a cell tower. Also the rear glass didn’t break, only the screen. Apple replaced the screen under AppleCare and my daughter still has the phone.
It's an upcoming disaster waiting to occur, having their own private NAS but not backing it up somewhere else, only relying on the RAID reconstruction abilities of whatever they bought (and that's for those who bought the much more expensive units with 2 or 3 disk bays... don't get me started with those cheaper single-disk Synology ones)
iCloud backup does a really bad job of reclaiming space, back when I was on the free tier every once in a while I'd clear the backup (I think by disabling it?) and then re-doing the backup.
My understanding is that if you cancel the trial you lose immediate access. But if you were paying for it and canceled, you’d retain access to the end of your billing period.
Ever since then, I've been getting notifications on the settings app about how my iCloud storage is almost out of space because somehow my iPhone backup takes nearly 4.8gb, even though I have disabled the vast majority of app backup permissions.
If you dismiss the almost out of storage notification and the accompanying ad for subscription to iCloud, it comes back a month later.
I feel this author's pain.
Another fishy thing that Apple does is that when I bought this phone, they gave a free year of Apple TV+. Most of my paid subscriptions I keep a close eye on and cancel right after I sign up, so that I won't have to remember at the end of the subscription period. It works fine with any app on the app store, I get the service for the desired period. With Apple TV +, if you cancel your subscription to avoid autorenew, it immediately cancels your access to the service.
Rules for thee, not for me.