> I'm assuming this was pre-gmail then, as they were very open about what they were doing once gmail came along

Actually, they weren't - in fact, it was after Gmail that their subtle marketing become louder that Google "does no evil" and would be a champion for your privacy. Google "reading you email" to show ads was controversial. They went to great length to try to fool us that data from their various products would never be combined and be isolated.

For example, they claimed that anyone using Google Adsense on a website wouldn't have any benefits in enhancing their presence on Google search results. But SEO's knew it long before Google themselves announced, that using Google Adsense on a website ensured that Google would crawl their website immediately.

You are right that very few of us understood the implications of what they were doing.

> I don't think iOS has ever let you have fine-grained control over what cookies are present on your device.

They did. Safari in IOS 7 had these four options for "Cookies and Website Data":

- Always Block
- Allow from current websites only
- Allow from websites I visit
- Always Allow

(Source: https://www.macobserver.com/tips/quick-tip/ios-tip-be-carefu... )

Where as now there is only "Block All Cookies" option. Naturally, you can't enable and use that since it breaks a lot of websites. And so we have to believe Apple that their "anti-tracking" is robust and actually works, while also allowing Apple to know every website I visit.

> This is device-level restrictions, IE to prevent whoever's using your device from making changes,

These subtle design changes are called "Dark Patterns" and intended to mislead and confuse the user.

An example of a dark pattern in a user interface is signing out of Gmail. If you remember, Gmail (as did Hotmail, YMail etc.) used to prominently show the LOGOUT / SIGNOUT link in top right corner, or in the bottom of their page. But then, they hid it in a drop down menu. So most users, confused, just closed their browser window when they couldn't figure out how to logout. Thus, allowing Google to better profile them by associating their search history using the Google Account / Gmail cookies. Now even Microsoft, Yahoo, Facebook etc. all do the same.

(Some more examples and context on "Dark Patterns" in UI design - https://uxplanet.org/5-common-ux-dark-patterns-and-user-frie... ).

Their earlier design was easier and better. Now they have just made it more UN-intuitive and confusing. This is deliberate, in my opinion.

> iCloud sync disabled by default, opt-in, not opt-out.

And sometimes, when you update ios / macOS, you suddenly find that all iCloud options have been enabled by default and all your earlier settings changed. I have noticed this once or twice in last 10 years or so since I started using iDevices.

> As far as smartphones go, most private and convenient option (for me) is an Apple device.

Try Sailfish OS on Sony Phones. ( https://jolla.com/sailfishx/ - this is the mobile OS that Apple is concerned about as it has all the features of a desktop OS with true multi-tasking, and yet is truly built for mobile with its gesture based ui (that Apple has copied from them).

Ofcourse, Sailfish OS still has to go a long way in offering the kind of device level and app level restrictions that ios offers, but I am hopeful it'll reach feature parity soon.