I can’t speak for ‘EylerWerve’, but you were asking how this is transparent?
It does of course happen, as you detail, but is transparent because you are told it is happening.
Do Apple, Google, Facebook and every other online entity keep information about you, directly or, more likely, indirectly identify you? Most likely.
Given that, you then go on to say you can delete everything from Google? I’m not clear why you think the opt out of ads, disabling tracking and the history delete is any more or less likely to actually happen with Google, compared to Apple, or anyone else.
Especially after the statement (I agree with): ‘But if anyone believes they [Google], Facebook AND Apple aren’t fully taking advantage of the information they gather about you, you’re delusional.’
As a non-iphone user, I’m more ticked off about tying parts of Yosemite to search providers–why does Bing/Apple need to know my local-computer searches? And although some of the features can be deactivated, it still pissess me off that the functionality is 1) turned on by default, and 2) has been coded into the system to begin with.
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Apple is a company known for very careful UI design choices. So it’s funny to find them trying to do things like putting advertising tracking preferences in a subcategory of the generic ‘About’ subcategory of the grab bag ‘General’ category instead of in ‘Privacy’. After this was reported they did move it to privacy in the next major release.
Also to get Apple to not track your location you need to disable ad tracking, and under location disable Share My Location, and disable Find My iPhone… I’m sure I missed a few.
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There was apparently a push by Apple to bring iOS style notifications to OSX, and this fell under that umbrella. It’s not a terrible idea I guess, for the average user, except it makes a LOT more sense on a phone than a laptop. The scuttlebutt is that the whole integration scheme is poorly received anyway.
Anyway, I think Ubuntu beat them to it. 
Maybe FOSS actually is a platform for innovation.
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The other half of this problem is everyone with whom you communicate. If YOU are secure, they may not be.
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The fact that Apple was one of the first companies noted used in PRISM by the government should raise eyebrows. Apple also uses the iAd platform for ads, like Google. They claim it’s deliberately small only to help out their developers. And while others have claimed that Apple only tracks location in your iPhone directly, it’s tied into your iTunes account. It stores that information in the cloud so that you can track your phone and also review location data online. Are we to assume there is some walled garden for that information that Apple politely provides away from its own business interests?
All in all, Apple has a variety of programs that put your privacy as at risk as other platforms if you’re using Apple hardware. I think it’s disingenous at best for Tim Cook to claim privacy at the heart of Apple’s business. It’s simply private between you and Apple, and it’s app developers, and anyone who hacks your account (like the government).
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According to http://a.abcnews.com/images/Technology/ht_nsa_prism_data_collection_graphic_thg_130607_wmain.jpg ,
Microsoft was the first to allow Prism access (in 2007), followed over the next 5 years by Yahoo, Google, Facebook, YouTube, Skype, and AOL. It wasn’t until 2013 when Apple finally capitulated. I’m sorry that they cooperated at all, but Apple held out longer than the others.
Well, thank goodness it encrypts traffic to quantserve and scorecardresearch. I hate it when people snoop on what I’m sending to advertising companies.
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Two men can keep a secret, if one of them is dead.
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But usually only if the other one is also dead.
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