Everyone was happy to believe Google when they used to say their motto was, "Don't be evil," but not willing to believe the CEO of Apple, even though they've done a LOT to show they are working inline with his speech. I'm not saying Apple is a saintly corporation, but just assuming they are bad because they they COULD be bad comes off as paranoid more than insightful.

>Nobody can really tell what they are collecting, what they do with it and how much of it they share with third parties (including governments).

http://www.apple.com/apples-commitment-to-customer-privacy/

Yes, this could all be lies, but so could literally anything anyone says. Either you choose to live as a recluse in the woods with no technology, or you choose to trust at least some corporations. That might mean trusting your search engine, your cell phone company, your car manufacturer. Heck, you're trusting your ISP right now not to do a MITM attack on you. The natural conclusion is that you should use strong encryption in everything you do. At this point, there is one company spearheading this to get it into the hands of consumers who don't know any better.

Again, I realize Apple isn't blameless, but there's an awful lot about their recent actions to show they are making decisions based on what is best for the consumer. I think that's a good thing, and it's hard to imagine why someone would argue against it.