Not true, unless by "having the benefit of hindsight" you mean "having watched Apple's actions for the last few years".
Yes, they do a lot for privacy. But when it comes to their bottom line, they also have a record of compromising on privacy (and consumer rights in general) to preserve business with less than freedom-loving countries such as China, the UAE, Russia.
It is sometimes difficult to criticize them for this because the financial loss to them would be huge if, say, China kicked them out of their market (and utterly devastating if they kicked them out of manufacturing in China), and because people like to make the argument that iOS is (probably) "still the the bets option for privacy in China" - but it doesn't change the fact that in Apple's hierarchy of priorities privacy ranks lower than making money.
To give a concrete example: if Apple allowed sideloading of apps as Android does, Apple would no longer be in the position to remove VPN apps on behest of China - but at the cost of opening up app distribution outside their own store, which means no free rent-seeking income from that anymore. They'd now actually need to compete on providing the best store for developers, which is obviously going to be more work and cost for them. So, instead they choose the "lesser evil" of putting themselves in a position where they are the only thing that stands (or rather: drops dead lie a wet sack) between an authoritarian state and people trying to circumvent that state's surveillance.
It's a good thing Apple shows more Courage(TM) when it truly counts, for instance when it comes to ridding us all of that terrible scourge of human existence, the 3.5mm jack.
Was recently thinking that Apple may pull a Coke, and bring back the 3.5mm for a number of reasons.
Except that they are making money on overpriced headsets and acquisitions like Beatz.
I guess they have always compromised on privacy to make more $$, whether it is the crummy protections for browsing on iOS, selling out to Google, or the nearly required bluetooth. Now, I am sure there are a lot more things to add to this list..
Two Final thoughts:
From a business perspective this is a serious impairment on Goodwill.
Loss of Privacy is going to negatively impact Apple services.
I think you'll find that a few of us, above poster included, have been saying all along it's a farce - that their stances have been missing the point for a long time. In that case, it's called foresight. Sometimes just luck, but repeated lucky guesses are indistinguishable from predictive power.
No, this is obvious to anyone that understands that companies one master: profit. The soon as it becomes convenient to discard a "principled" stand, a company will do it. Apple was using privacy as a wedge to attack the Android consumer base or because they wanted their customers to believe they were special to reinforce their velben brand, not because they have some deeply held belief. In this case, perhaps Apple saw a way to do a favor for the government in exchange for some policy that will advantage it.
