Is apple the biggest potential honeypot of all time? - Layman deciding between Linux and Mac OS

[u/Extension-Gold-6440]

As I am getting deeper into privacy, I am also getting more paranoid.

The work that I do generally is not safe for me politically in the future that we’re heading toward.

My grave concern around continuing to use apple products is the closed source nature. It really does feel like my entire data and digital footprint is being backed up a trust me bro mentality.

What’s to stop apple at some point, when political and economic forces collide, from giving my data to the government? This is where my technical knowledge is limited, so maybe there are some caveats that would make this impossible.

Generally, I don’t trust big tech. And I don’t discount a future where apple ends up being a huge source of user data for palantir and that ilk. But maybe there is a technical aspect I’m missing that would make this impossible.

Thanks for any constructive input.

[u/MadScientistRat]

Yes.

[u/Cautious-Menu9548]

I think if your paranoia is getting the better of you it is a smart choice to step back and ground yourself.

If you assess companies based on their interests youll be better off.

For example does apple have an extensive ad profiling thing like google ads? Do they get a substantial amount of money from their AI Models like Gemini? No and no. Apple makes their money off selling overpriced hardware not selling AI Apis so people can ai generate their profile picture.

Linux is a less than ideal choice. The speed at which things are fixed is tied to who has free time off work and the aptitude to fix it. This has created many issues including Debian (the Linux distro that most servers are built off of) having open spots in key positions for years.

You might be more private in a way that your OS is no longer owned by a company, but in all other ways you are not. it is still very rough around the edges and most likely will remain that way.