After the update, iCloud Passwords and Keychain Sync turned on by itself. So all passwords and keychain info (I don't know what keychain info encompasses) is in the Cloud now. Apparently it's E2E encrypted, but in some closed source way which I didn't choose.

This is a known issue apparently (https://9to5mac.com/2023/09/27/icloud-keychain-issues/) but not many people seemed to care.

Also it's not clear if that data can be deleted from the Cloud at all (https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/419116/are-there-any-solid-way-to-view-delete-online-icloud-keychain). The Apple Docs text has changed.

Then, today iCloud Calendar Sync turned on by itself, too, which isn't E2E by default. I don't know what's next.

I remember, in the past, iCloud Photo Sync turned on by itself too on some old version.

Also "Live Voicemail" turned itself on. But that's not iCloud? I don't know.

There were similar posts in the past (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=28285567).

Apple, why do you keep doing this? I use iCloud for Find My iPhone and Wallet only, but it seems like you don't care and just enable other stuff as well, which I explicitly turned off before.

I liked iOS because I thought Apple respects that kind of stuff, but now I'm not sure what phone to buy next.

Perhaps this info is interesting for other folks here.