I don't agree with that view point. As both a user of Apple's products and as a worried citizen about privacy rights, to me it looks like Apple is just using a different approach to collect the same user data that Google and Facebook desire. It is just using the hindsight of how Google and Facebook went about it, and the negative PR they faced, to refine both its data collection process and PR strategy to convey they are saints. (It's a classic Apple way - they observe their competitors and their product for a while, before refining it and launching their own).
There is a lot of profit in collecting and monetising user's data - Apple's shareholder will not allow them to leave it on the table. Apple knows that as it was part of the PRISM program and earned a lot of money by supplying the US government it's users data. (Apple also dropped plan for encrypting backups after FBI complained - https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-fbi-icloud-exclusiv... ). And on a different note, in the early years, Google too begin it's spying and data collection by convincing its users that it is a "decent" company.
There is a lot of profit in collecting and monetising user's data - Apple's shareholder will not allow them to leave it on the table. Apple knows that as it was part of the PRISM program and earned a lot of money by supplying the US government it's users data. (Apple also dropped plan for encrypting backups after FBI complained - https://www.reuters.com/article/us-apple-fbi-icloud-exclusiv... ). And on a different note, in the early years, Google too begin it's spying and data collection by convincing its users that it is a "decent" company.