TINY CAMERAS!?! We found out what those customer satisfaction buttons actually do

A hidden world of analytics, cameras, and AI.

ICYMI: Manny wrote a book and you can check it out here! It’s called Colored People Time: A Case for (Casual) Rebellion, and it’s a collection of essays about the ways that time wraps itself around our most personal moments.

Now onto this week’s episode, we’re answering a question from a listener named Emma: What do those smiley-face customer-satisfaction buttons you see in airport bathrooms actually do?

(Apple, Spotify, YouTube, Others)

I tracked down the Finland-based company behind most of them, HappyOrNot. Miika Mäkitalo came up with the idea for the company as a teenager, after being annoyed that he couldn’t find any employees at an electronics store to help him buy something.

For this episode I spoke to Scott Erickson, HappyOrNot’s VP of US Sales and Global Channels who gives us a peek behind the curtain, unveiling a hidden world of analytics, cameras, and AI.

If you want to learn more about HappyOrNot check out this profile from 2018 in the New Yorker.

Like this episode? Check out:

Is your phone listening to you… and should you care? 🔊🤫

DEV-ITORS NOTE: After the interview, HappyOrNot clarified that cameras are standard on their touchscreen devices, but the button devices don’t have them.

Have a question you want us to get to the bottom of? Email us at mannynoahdevan@gmail.com or leave a voicemail at ‪(860) 325-0286.

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