I don’t care if anyone has a Xiaomi, Oneplus, Samsung, etc. Each brand is using a modified version of Android, and they chose to be compatible with each other. But for example the “blue vs green bubble” drama is a thing specifically because of Apple locking their unsuspecting users into a closed ecosystem. And it sure isn’t Android’s fault for not being compatible with it.
The more power a company like this gains, the worse will it be for the whole industry.
Much of your data can just be subpoenaed and then provided to law enforcement without physical access however. Apple complies 90% of the time.
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2022/sep/23/apple-user-data-law-enforcement-falling-short
Also, there are ways that LE can bypass your iphone’s encryption. Just doesn’t work all the time.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/4ag5yj/unlock-apple-iphone-database-for-police
GrapheneOS, based on AOSP, is really the only truly private and secure option. Android offering interoperability is not a downside and Apple having a walled garden does not mean it provides increased security. Apple is decidedly not transparent and this is ultimately not a good thing.
You’re talking about data stored in the apple cloud (I think without the account recovery turned off, but I’m not 100% on that). The same is true of googles cloud services.
Agencies haven’t been focusing on getting the actual texts that say “here I go, doing something you don’t like!” For quite a while because of the amount of variability involved. What I hear spooks talking about is building enough pc for a rubber hose interrogation with unsecured parallel data streams like push notifications.