You should also look through the other linked articles. Some of them include features built into iOS devices that already circumvent encryption.
That said, I think all this syncing and cloud stuff - in its early days, at least - is way overcomplicated and more error-prone both in its features and its security than it needs to be. I expect mistakes from all implementations for quite some time to come.
The smartest CS undergrad at any vaguely reputable school could probably do this correctly. It shouldn't be a problem at all for one of the biggest companies in America if they actually care.
> then cryptography != security != privacy
Which is a more interesting point and assuming the left side was taken care of we could rapidly approach the right side by doing things like providing more granular permissions to applications.
You are very wrong about this.
> assuming the left side was taken care of we could rapidly approach the right side by doing things like providing more granular permissions to applications
It's actually an unsolved problem. Granular permissions have been tried before.