The privacy I am referring to is with respect to data mining and pushing ads or content on the basis of it. That is Google's entire business model and their anonymization is still noteworthy for the data collected by them.
However, by extension Google has allowed OEMs and apps to access a lot of private information about the user that they have no business accessing. We know why Huawei's 5G infrastructure cost half that of Nokia or Ericsson, because it is subsidised by the Chinese government and has backdoors in it. Same goes for most devices from Chinese OEMs whose ROMs end up doing data mining for the Chinese government. How do you suppose China has become a leader in AI which requires extensive pattern recognition at a time when competitors in Europe are struggling due to GDPR.
This is the kind of privacy that Apple like to tout, the most accessible violation. The article you have linked to is about a vulnerability requiring physical access. These kind of exploits are a lot more useful for law enforcement agencies. I have read Snowden's book, so I know the various tools and how NSA exploited it. Data ending up with China rather than US doesn't really make things worse, but Apple just makes it a lot more difficult.