1) collect the data
2) make assumptions (e.g. whether you're part of a minority, prone to spending impulsively, what your stance on refugees might be...) based on it
3) tell other companies that they can advertise to users based on one of hundreds of criteria, such as the above

This is why Google, Facebook and Apple can all claim they don't sell your data.

Apple's privacy stance is largely a charade, because if they cared about privacy, they would give users the tools to completely block in-app tracking (or forbid it outright).

Instead we have to deal with it by using DNS-based blocking, which is incomplete (but still better to use than an iPhone/Android phone without).

Apple does the same through their ads program (for e.g. the App Store, Apple News, and soon Maps).

Selling customer data would be dumb for these companies, since it would undermine their ad programs.

Apple also does nothing to stop in-app tracking, so you are still leaking a lot of data (they only disallow cross-app tracking following user intent).

Pure diefstal...

The first two reads are from the excellent @pluralistic. He sometimes drops a bit too many jawdropping facts at once, but he does a great job of providing sources.

[1] https://pluralistic.net/2022/11/14/luxury-surveillance/#liar-liar

[2] https://pluralistic.net/2021/05/18/unhealthy-balance-sheet/#think-manorialism

[3] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/17/technology/apple-china-censorship-data.html

Not only does Apple engage in advertising (and collect much of the same info that Facebook collects) [1], they have double standards when upholding their purported values matters the most [2,3].

A publicly traded company is not able to protect your interests long term.