You are not an iProduct

I've been thinking lately about privacy and the relationship to the business strategies of various companies, and have become fond of saying that there are two companies:  ones that sell products and ones for whom you are the product.  Google and Facebook are the canonical examples of the later half (Google does sell some things, but largely does not, or does it at a massive loss).  Apple and Microsoft are canonical examples for the former.  There is a question, as The Googleplex continues to demonstrate the power of "free", which direction Apple and Microsoft are going to go in the future.

I firmly believe that both companies have an enormous opportunity to sell services and technology if they can convince people they are not making you their product.

Just saw this quote from Tim Cook, that pretty clearly lays out where Apple stands:

Our view is that when we design a new service we try not to collect data. So we're not reading your email. We're not reading your iMessage. If the government laid a subpoena on us to get your iMessages, we can't provide it. It's encrypted and we don't have a key.
Our business is based on selling [products]. Our business is not based on having information about you. You are not our product. ( courtesy of macrumors.com)