The hubbub was due to some bugs in iOS location services and wasn't ever directly accessed by Apple or shared with 3rd parties.

http://www.apple.com/ca/pr/library/2011/04/27Apple-Q-A-on-Lo...

All smartphone providers track the same sort of data in roughly the same way, it's part of what makes location software work.

IIRC they did that without informing or asking their users for permission. Contrast that with android which is opt-in.

The problem here is the long-term tendency is to turn opt-in into "if you don't opt in you don't get any of our services".

Kinda like HIPPA medical privacy rights in the USA: when you go to a doctor, they'll hand you a paper for you to sign acknowledging you understand your privacy rights...then they hand you another paper for you to sign away those rights; if you don't sign both, you don't get any medical service. Imagine a not-distant future where if you don't opt-in to questionable services from Google, Apple & Microsoft, you're flatly denied use of any of their products - digitally ostracizing yourself from most of society.

Like not getting invited to parties and gatherings if you don't use facebook or not being approached for jobs if you don't use linkedin? We're already there.

Also they didn't collect the information or share it with third parties and well it was a bug. I don't agree with the OP but I think it's unfair to contrast what Apple did with anything that also wasn't a bug. It would sort of be like comparing what Apple did with security vulnerabilities in Android; the user isn't informed, notified and permission isn't asked for on the other hand Google and Apple weren't/aren't doing so purposefully.