Just for FDroid and the open source programs alone I would stick with android. Watching YouTube without ads, my own browser with an adblocker....

Stock Android versus stock iOS, stock iOS is more hardened, more secure. But it's a more restrictive walled garden. So it depends what your criteria of privacy is. If you have an iCloud account, and you enable end to end encryption, and you trust Apple then it's better than stock Android.

If you're not willing to flash a rom, then it comes down to trusting Apple or Google more. Although, android also has the benefit of a much larger selection of open source utilities that you can easily install from F-Droid. This is enough for me to prefer even stock Android over iOS, because 99% of the apps on my android phone are open source and I feel I can trust them fully.

Android is primarily sponsored and advertised by Google, which is basically the world's largest advertising company that also happens to have an IT department.

iOS is exclusively sponsored and advertised by Apple, which is basically a large IT company that makes most of its money with rather expensive hardware.

One of those is a wiser choice if you care about your privacy.

Check out the Fairphone 4/5 running /e/OS. To get a "stock" phone that comes degoogled and ready to use, no tinkering required, you can buy a phone directly from the makers of /e/OS/: Murena

People really like to crap on apple for reasons justified and not. But when it comes to privacy there's a pretty clear difference in the track records for Google and Apple. Here are some articles that might be worth a read in helping you decide. Really what it boils down to is what matters most to you. Apple may have the better privacy record, but it also locks you into a garden with very high walls. Google/android architecture may be a lot more versatile and provide more hardware options and customizability, but they will harvest and sell every scrap of data they can get their hands on.

https://9to5mac.com/2022/08/25/apple-collect-less-data-than-other-companies/

https://www.tomsguide.com/face-off/iphone-vs-android

https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/ios-vs-android/

https://www.techradar.com/news/google-photos-vs-icloud

There's only one phone that runs GrapheneOS so that's the one I get. If you're looking at stock phones, apple is the best for privacy and security, but if you really care about those two things you're probably not just looking at them stock

Some phones can have GrapheneOS.

I made the switch to Pixel last year and I can tell you that the ads on it are far more precise than on iPhone.

FDroid and Open Source are good.

While Apple isn’t perfect, history has shown that they take privacy more seriously than Google.

If you are a normal user that just wants a bit privacy and no excessive amount of spyware, I guess iOS is the way. Though if you do care about privacy, you can get yourself a pixel phone and flash GrapheneOS, which is far superior to stock android or iOS. It's FOSS, it has tools that will help with your privacy, etc. Plus android has a far bigger app market than iOS. You most likely will find everything you need in FDroid.

The big issues with iPhone I have are overly complicated, overly expensive, walled garden, and so locked down you cannot remote control, and cannot install your own software from your own sources. Researchers cannot even easily reaseach security issues and they do have them.

So with all that, iPhone is a no for me. On the other hand probably more secure. It is also not from an Ad company which is good.

Whether Apple or Google collects/abuse more data, I'm not sure.

But I prefer iOS's design for app security. iOS apps are more restricted than Android apps in general, and when iOS apps require permissions they prompt clearly.

Most Android apps seem to have excessive permissions by default. The Play Store is a mess and the "Data safety" section is worse than useless, with scammers self-declaring the apps as "no data collected".

Funny, on my subscription list the post right below yours addresses exactly that...but its an ad of sorts

https://monero.town/post/444517

Android's PIN/password screen is shit. When you press a number, it shows the button you pressed. As you type 6279 or whatever, you see the 6 button flash as you press it.

Anyone looking over your shoulder can basically see your PIN. I miss Cyanogenmod. They altered the lockscreen so the numbers didn't do anything you type in 6279 and it looks like you're just touching your screen.

You've used android. You've used iOS. Time to get a Linux phone. I'd suggest PinePhone.

Edit - Take a look at this post Open Source sub-lemmy.