If not using iCloud, it should be much safer. Been getting a lot of iCloud spam recently. Almost daily. Best to disable iMessage all together. Useless feature.

Android also safe if unrooted or not sideloading APK. By default, this feature was disabled but too easy to enable back.

Conclusion?

Tech savvy can use Android and not afraid of whatever because they know what they're doing.

Clueless people should stick to dumb phones or iPhone instead. It just works for them.

For my banking needs, I'm using the old A72 with no social media apps or anything with ads. It just a phone with basic data plan. No WhatsApp either. So far so good.