They may spin it as necessary for "diagnostic" purposes or some such, to improve "user experience". This may be true but at the same time they reserve the right to use the data however they wish. It may have much higher value if used for commercial purposes. Will they ever do that? Hopefully not, but they are in a position to do it and thats the problem -- they are creating a company asset (user data) that is also a potential liability for users who value privacy.

When Apples CEO says "we could have monetized our users but we didnt" that should raise a red flag. Why are they even in a position to monetize users? Its hardware. His comments are pure marketing; hes trying to differentiate Apple from these other companies (yet hes admitting Apple could easily do as they do). If Apple was really "doing the right thing" as to privacy, they would not be collecting data by default, they would not have integrated Facebook and other such ad-driven companies into iOS (perhaps they have finally removed them now), they would be training users to think twice before uploading private data into "the cloud". That is, if Apple was really concerned about user privacy.

All collection would be optional and certainly would not be encouraged or enabled by default. The default would be no data collection.

There is a consistent, predictable effort to flag or downvote every comment that expresses any skepticism of Apple. This is really sad. No company is perfect. I am not anti-Apple; I have been using their hardware since the Apple ][. If users want Apple to improve then suppressing all commentary is not going to help. I think constructive criticism could actually improve the situation. Companies are "listening".

The truth is that Apple has been aggressively collecting user data just like these other companies, likely at least in part for "competitive purposes". They have invested heavily in building data centers to hold user data. Todays Apple computers start dialing in to Apple servers the moment the user powers them on. Whether they use the data to serve ads is not the issue. Apple is not training users to be wary of such collection. Quite the opposite.

It just doesnt fit with "Privacy is a fundamental human right." Users who want privacy (all thirteen of them, for now) may not want their data in the possession of third parties, stored in some data center. This is just common sense. Those users are the models to follow if privacy is really, truly important. Why would a company try to frustrate the user who wants to manage their own privacy?

If such users are marginalised (e.g. limited hardware functionality unless one participates in data collection, because Apple is upselling users after purchase on "Apple services"), if Apple subscribes to the belief of other web companies that all users want their data stored with third parties (truly, the third parties are the ones who want it), then this is making privacy much more difficult to achieve.

Apple privacy terms state users are not "required" to submit data, but if they dont some services wont work. It is the same type of "subtle language" as referred to in the recently leaked Facebook memo.

Ive got plenty of karma points to sacrafice. Its worth it. Apple can most certainly improve but not without honest feedback.