Hoan Ton-That

Clearview AI CEO Hoan Ton-That Resigns Amid Facial Recognition Controversies

| Importance: 6/10

Hoan Ton-That, co-founder and CEO of controversial facial recognition startup Clearview AI, resigned from his position, stating “it is time for the next chapter in my life.” Ton-That said he would remain on as a board member but declined to comment on what specifically sparked his …

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Clearview AI Deploys Mass Facial Recognition Technology in Ukraine War

| Importance: 8/10

Ukraine’s defense ministry began using Clearview AI’s facial recognition technology in early March 2022, just weeks after Russia’s invasion, after CEO Hoan Ton-That offered free access to the company’s database of over 10 billion photos. Ton-That first demonstrated the tool …

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New York Times Exposé Reveals Clearview AI's 3 Billion Photo Surveillance Database

| Importance: 9/10

New York Times journalist Kashmir Hill published a groundbreaking exposé titled “The Secretive Company That Might End Privacy As We Know It,” revealing that Clearview AI had scraped 3 billion faces from Facebook, YouTube, Venmo, and millions of other websites without anyone’s …

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NYPD Begins Secret Trial of Clearview AI Facial Recognition Technology

| Importance: 7/10

The New York Police Department signed a nondisclosure agreement with Clearview AI on December 6, 2018, beginning a secret trial period that would run through March 6, 2019. The trial marked one of the first major law enforcement deployments of Clearview’s controversial facial recognition …

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Clearview AI Founded to Build Mass Facial Recognition Database

| Importance: 8/10

Clearview AI was founded in 2017 by Australian tech entrepreneur Hoan Ton-That and Richard Schwartz, a former aide to Rudy Giuliani when he was mayor of New York. The company was created after transferring the assets of another company, SmartCheckr, which the pair originally founded alongside …

Hoan Ton-That Richard Schwartz Peter Thiel Clearview AI surveillance-state privacy-violations authoritarian-infrastructure tech-oligarchy
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