> get a pinephone if you value freedom and privacy. apple ios is just as bad as android or microsoft windows
It's not as black and white as that. Other people will have different requirements and make different tradeoffs to you.
The PinePhone is great if you value freedom, privacy, and have the time and inclination to make it work for you. Most don't, and an iOS device is a good compromise if you value privacy over freedom to run your own code. It's not perfect, but it's better than Android.
While some people can manage with a pinephone, it is not “production-ready” at all. I do own one, and I am very very thankful to all the people involved with it, but it is simply not comparable to even a low-end android phone, let alone a high-end one or an iphone.
It’s a hobby project as of yet (as even mentioned on the website). Hopefully once software matures there will come a pinephone 2 that will pack a more modern hardware and have full android app compatibility (there is no way around it, it is needed) that can be actually used as a daily driver.
But it doesn't matter. OS telemetry is the least of your problems. That much bigger threat is that of third-party apps on your phone. And the PinePhone does absolutely nothing whatsoever to deal with that threat, while iOS has a huge amount of security built to prevent this.
> And the PinePhone does absolutely nothing whatsoever to deal with that threat, while iOS has a huge amount of security built to prevent this.
Huh?
Most mobile-optimized distros offer apps through Flatpak, which gives much stronger sandboxing protections than iOS through Bubblewrap. You can block access to the network, Bluetooth, filesystem (outside the app's sandbox), GPU, accelerometer, webcam, etc. Most distros also offer SELinux and AppArmor for protections outside the sandbox. Accessing stuff from outside the sandbox (like files) is done through portals, similar to the iOS "share" dialog or file-choosing modals.
For non-technical users, all of this is enabled by default. Programs like FlatSeal let them toggle permissions on and off. Technical users can override permissions, spoof fake information, and dive into SELinux rules.
With iOS, users can't block network access from specific apps, spoof sensor data, block GPU access, etc. You're only as private as Apple thinks you need to be.
I agree that sandboxing should be decoupled from the distribution platform. Unfortunately, normal users aren't going to use bubblewrap or firejail directly until better GUI wrappers are made.
I also think that sandboxing is still a worthwhile pursuit for many FLOSS packages, since many programs--from moddable games to web browsers--run untrusted code. It also mitigates damage done by some forms of user and developer error (can't accidentally wipe a homedir if you can't access it).
It's similar to the rationale for not logging in as root unless necessary.
