I really don't understand this. That's how you make your security decisions? Based on something you've read about Tim Cook in the news? But no third party audit, no open source code, no decentralization, zero self-hosted infrastructure? You put all your data in a black box that someone else controls fully, but hey, at least they took the FBI to court once? And on top of that considering this is Apple, well known for dazzling people with superficial first-impressions, into making bad long-term choices?
I sent an RFP to all the hardware makers, but no one was willing to cough up a third party audit, let me audit their flashing process, crack open the IME, let me review the chain of custody for every chip, and opensource the bootloader for my n=1 order quantity.
Could I flash coreboot/libreboot, (mostly) disable IME, get opensource firmware for every peripheral, and get a chain of custody for every part from boule to finished part? perhaps, but this is not realistic for most people.
You're making a long list of assumptions that are not true. Incremental, improved privacy offered by apple over something like Windows is a significant improvement for most people.
Going to court is the pretty good "put up or shut up", idk what else you are expecting here.
Word. The comment you replied to also gave me a thought.
Tim's public displays for privacy would be a perfect cover story for a gagged backdoored device.
Not likely the case in 2015 Apple nor probably even now, but perhaps a technique for the future or elsewhere to watch out for.