[nerdjon]

This is how I feel. Safari can still do a lot and I hope they continue to make it more private (no reason to believe they won't).

But on Mac I stick with Safari not only because of the reasons you stated, but also because of iCloud (yes I know this breaks privacy but I trust Apple... mostly).

I use Brave though on my Windows PC but I may switch too DDG, or at least give it a shot.

[core-utility]

> but I trust Apple... mostly

This for me is a big part of privacy. It's not about making sure nobody has my data, that's a near-impossible task and never ending. But if I can consolidate and limit who has my data to entities I trust slightly more than others, it's a win.

Example, using a credit card comes with the inherent idea that you can be tracked. Your bank obviously tracks you and knows everything about you, Visa sees it all as using their network, and the third and most important, every merchant/vendor you visit can now track your purchase patterns and tie that with other information about you. Using Apple Pay, I'm giving Apple my purchase history at the benefit of having a randomized number for each transaction that the hundreds/thousands of vendors I shop at can't track me by.

[nerdjon]

What is interesting is for me, I kinda take the opposite approach.

Kinda ... A lot of my information has been consolidated to Apple. I am not naive enough to trust them completely. But I feel like I have made a conscious choice of balancing privacy concerns with Apple (and their business practices for the use of that data) and the convenience of features.

But in my opinion one of my biggest issue I have with companies like Facebook and Google is that consolidation. I would rather the companies only know bits (realistically none but considering both companies allow others to consent on my behalf... there isn't much I can do) instead of an entire pictures.

Now I know that many of these companies sell data in the background. But I guess I have some weird level of... comfort knowing that they have to do extra work to piece the data about me together.

[core-utility]

I could see your point there as well. If talking about Facebook and Google, I absolutely am on the same side of not giving them an inch more. I see them as data-first companies, whereas I see Apple more product-first. Whether I'm correct in that is debatable.

[nerdjon]

Agree completely, what is the worst that Apple is going to do with that data? Find out how to sell me more of their services and products?

Not sure they could sell me much more considering I already do Apple One premier (or whatever the highest tier is), Apple TV's, HomePods, AirPods, etc etc.

Maybe that is a bit of the wrong mentality, but it's a balance for me.