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Can you give examples of the Apple spyware you're mentioning? I'm familiar with the on-device scanning for iCloud-backups-using phones, but for me that's it. How wrong am I?

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I don't have examples on iOS because i've never used an iPhone, but on MacOS Apple was caught red-handed asking their central server authorization to run 3rd party programs whenever you start an application. It was only discovered because their server failed and programs failed to start:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25074959

I think we can agree this perfectly fits the definition of "spyware"? There's probably countless other examples i'm unaware of, and to be fair Apple is certainly not the only actor engaging in such outrageous behavior (Microsoft is another, perhaps more famous one).

EDIT: It appears there's studies of iOS data collection and it's really scary. Previous discussion here https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28741262

I can’t say for certain it literally spies on you, but the majority of pre installed apps on iPhone are still not removable (this has been gradually improving each year since like 2016).

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