That could very well be the case. However, I would have to be seriously gullible to believe anything those closed companies promote an "independent" party paid by them found, moreso if the findings only serve to push their proven lies forward for "public perception'.

In this case it's and actual independent party auditing open source code, that makes much more sense.

Just because dollars exchange hands doesn’t mean the data provided is invalid.

You are absolutely correct. What means the provided data is invalid is the fact that these companies are regularly found lying about how they handle our " privacy" or how secure they are. Just search for "Apple lied" and see all the instances and how they try to bury it all via PR bullshit.

I believe that, out of Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and Apple, Apple is the lesser evil, but that means shit when they all do the same, just in different ways and at varying degrees.