So…. No proof.

Look up a YT channel called Tech-Bore

Privacy-conscious Indians are gonna have a nightmare. Indians excessively use whatsapp.

laughs in LineageOS

Same for you. Proof that Apple isn't using it to analyze your (usage) data.
And it's not okay just because it's the 1st party analyzing it because they arent selling it.

I am really tired of the hypocrisy of some lemmy users advocating for maximum privacy to the detriment of everyone around them but on the other hand just saying "yeah, that's totally fine" and basically breaking all their principles.

As every user at some points mentions: They are a public company and once they can't satisfy their shareholders, they will turn on the data faucet to 3rd parties. They already have the an advertisement CDN.
They already have everything in place to achieve that situation.

Everyone outside of the US uses whatsapp.

I found settings for it in my phone's settings menu, so yeah, no standalone app you can disable or remove. They baked it into the OS.

I have Android 16 on a Pixel 8 but no Gemini. Is it not installed if I chose "No thanks" when I got the info screens about it?

Apple absolutely does collect huge amounts of data from the users. The difference is they don't directly 'sell' that data to advertisers. Instead they get paid to personalize the ads themselves and wear that as a badge for 'advocating privacy'.
Stock Android is horrendous compared to what Apple does, yes. However you usually have the option to ditch it for a more privacy respecting Android.

Viber is more popular in eastern europe

Kinda, but the thing this time is that they will change it f unilaterally rom their side, even if you specifically disabled this connectivity on your phone. So they want that data reallyyyyy badly. So even more important to not give it to them.

Sure , in 2010.

In Norway we use Facebook Messenger, which is worse. Wattsapp's at least usable as a messaging platform for more than 1-to-1 communication

It's only on Android 9 and up. So, definitely not absolutely there.

These instructions are awful. There's no Gemini listed in my apps, and Settings > Apps doesn't show it either. But if I search for "Gemini" in settings, THEN it shows up, but doesn't have access to anything the article says to do.

However, from that screen, I was able to apparently turn off its access to everything, and switch back to assistant, which appears to have turned it off completely, but who knows if it's still lurking in the background.

Open settings, and search for"Gemini" from the search bar. That's the only way I was able to get to anything Gemini related. I turned off it's access to everything from there, then the last setting was to switch back to assistant which appears to have turned Gemini off, but who knows (hence disabling it's access to everything anyway).

I also don't have a Gemini app but if you search for Gemini in the Settings main menu, it shows up.

Nop. Disable it in the settings/apps

With search there's only a single "Gemini Settings" that is found. That opens a wizard for me. On the second page, after scrolling all the way down, I can select "No thanks". That's what I was referring to. I was wondering if that's enough.