I didn't say it was false, I said it was FUD. FUD isn't necessarily untrue, merely overblown and overhyped.
I'm certain that the apps that have "tracked my GPS history" have done so with my consent and knowledge.
I use Google Play for my music, so there's no doubt that my playlist and playcounts are on someone else's server somewhere. I also know that at least one Google engineer has seen my playlists because I had to ask for help with an issue with the service before surrounding tag edits.
"Looked at who I have in my address book" - sure. I use an Android device so all of my contacts are backed up on a Google server. I somehow doubt that anybody is rifling through that information.
My response to all of the above is "So what"?
There are APIs to pull that information, but they require my consent to do so (the permissions before apps are downloaded, and those can be restricted anyways with the aid of something like LBE Privacy Guard).
Malware and apps that surreptitiously access this data are rare.
