Does Apple collect and use my location data for traffic predictions on the iOS Apple Maps app by default?

Maps uses crowd-sourced information to measure traffic delays, but it is anonymous data, not tied to you specifically. The only way to turn it off is to not use Maps. This differs from Waze, which definitely DOES identify you, and even displays your icon on the map for others to see.

Maps (and other nav apps) also gets traffic data, and particularly detours, from public highway authorities, and they get their data by tracking you, using toll transponders (which can be read by scanners anywhere, not just at toll points) and license plate scanners. That’s how they can display times to various destinations in highway signs. And other uses: Several years ago a murder in the NYC area was solved by tracking the toll transponder of a stolen car.

Can't remember the source, but I did see this info on a recent post:

The main provider of map data is TomTom, but data is also supplied by Automotive Navigation Data, Getchee, Hexagon AB, IGN, Increment P, Intermap Technologies, LeadDog, MDA Information Systems, OpenStreetMap, and Waze.

Yes, that is correct, and what Apple does is the least of your worries if you are concerned about tracking:

• Your carrier knows the location of your phone all the time, even if you turn off location services, because it can triangulate from the towers that receive your phone’s periodic “I’m here” ping. They are required by law to do this to support E911 in the US. They upload this information to databases where your location and whereabouts are known to law enforcement and any business that cares to know where you are.
• License plate scanners are ubiquitous, in police vehicles and repo trucks. And also along limited access highways, toll roads, bridges and tunnels. And every time your plate is scanned it goes into a location database.
• Electronic toll tags are obviously used every time you use a toll facility, but transponders are located everywhere along highways for traffic control. Have you see signs that display how long it will take to get to an upcoming milepost? Where do you think they get that information?
• Do you use public Wi-Fi, your cable provider’s hotspots or the “free” convenient Wi-Fi networks in malls and stores? Did you think that your location wasn’t tracked by those?
• See those cameras in stores, malls and other public places? Have you heard about facial recognition?
• Did you ever post your picture in Shutterfly?
• Do you have a Transit Pass account?
• Do you use an urban bicycle rental like New York’s CitiBike? Have you noticed that your usage history shows the location and time you picked up the bike and likewise when you dropped it off?
• Do you use credit cards in stores? Did you know that the location where you use a card is recorded in a worldwide central database, ostensibly to detect card fraud through what’s called a “velocity check” (AKA as the “superman test”)?
• Have you heard of iBeacon? It’s a feature that tracks and reports the location of any device that has Bluetooth enabled on a device.
• What about Find My iPhone, which always knows where your phone is? And its feature added in iOS 12 that uses the Bluetooth signals from other phones to anonymously crowdsource the location of a missing phone?

Apple is about the only business in the world that does NOT track you.

Apple's Privacy Policy describes how Apple collects, uses, and shares your personal data. In addition to this Privacy Policy, ...

Apple Privacy Policy - Legal

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