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I'm assuming you are remembering Cook's open letter on privacy http://www.apple.com/privacy/

"Our business model is very straightforward: We sell great products. We don’t build a profile based on your email content or web browsing habits to sell to advertisers."

This obviously is not saying Apple doesn't sell ads. It's saying their core business model is selling products. The users are not the product.

2 comments

Note does it doesn't say they don't build any profiles at all, or use your behavior for their own purposes, or that they don't collect data. It is in fact, very likely they do use profiles of their users for internal purposes, even if just for improving those services.

It does not say they don't collect data thought. And I'm pretty sure not even Google sells data to advertisers, they sell ad space. It's just a PR stunt.