Since two technology programmers revealed last week that Apple’s iPhone contains hidden software that regularly records the owner’s location, the iPhone brand’s perception dropped from a Buzz score of 31.7 on April 21st to a 2011 year-to-date low of 7.4 for adults aged 18 plus.
To put the iPhone’s fall in greater perspective, the brand’s Buzz score peak this year was 40.2 in mid-February. Its current score, while still positive, is the lowest it has been all year.
Privacy issues have had a large role in consumer perception in recent years. For example, last year, Facebook took big hits in their Buzz score when loud protests followed their changes in privacy and security settings, accusing them of being misleading and ineffective.
