The Department of Justice announced on December 12, 2025 that it had sued four additional states—Colorado, Hawaii, Massachusetts, and Nevada—demanding complete, unredacted voter registration lists including driver’s license numbers and partial Social Security numbers, bringing the total number …
Department of JusticeHarmeet DhillonJena GriswoldBill GalvinAndrea Joy Campbell+4 morevoter-suppressiondoj-weaponizationsurveillance-stateelectoral-manipulationcivil-liberties+2 more
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 …
By mid-2024, U.S. defense contractors and surveillance technology companies began systematically marketing their systems as “battle-tested in Ukraine,” transforming the ongoing war into a real-world demonstration and validation platform for AI-powered surveillance, autonomous weapons, …
On April 26, 2023, the Ukrainian government launched Brave1, a state-backed coordination platform designed to accelerate development of dual-use military and surveillance technologies. Founded by a coalition including the Ministry of Digital Transformation, Ministry of Defence, General Staff of the …
Ukraine Ministry of Digital TransformationUkraine Ministry of DefenceBrave1 Clustersurveillance-statemilitary-technologyartificial-intelligenceinternational-conflictauthoritarian-infrastructure
On April 22, 2023, Palantir Technologies announced a partnership with Ukraine’s Prosecutor General’s Office to process massive volumes of war crimes evidence using artificial intelligence and data analytics. At the time of the announcement, Ukraine had registered more than 78,000 alleged …
France’s data protection authority (CNIL) imposed a €20 million fine on Clearview AI - the maximum penalty allowed under GDPR Article 83 - for unlawful processing of biometric data through its facial recognition technology. The CNIL found that Clearview had collected over 20 billion images …
CNILClearview AIEuropean Data Protection BoardFrancesurveillance-stateprivacy-violationsregulatory-actioninternational-lawgdpr
On June 1, 2022, Palantir CEO Alex Karp crossed the border from Poland into Ukraine and met President Volodymyr Zelensky in the presidential palace bunker, becoming the first major Western tech CEO to visit since Russia’s February invasion. Karp told Zelensky they could work together “in …
Palantir TechnologiesAlex KarpUkraine Ministry of DefenceVolodymyr Zelenskysurveillance-statemilitary-technologyauthoritarian-infrastructureinternational-conflictartificial-intelligence
The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) fined Clearview AI £7.5 million for breaching UK data protection rules by creating an online database of over 20 billion images of people’s faces collected from publicly available sources on the internet and social media without …
Information Commissioner's OfficeClearview AIUnited Kingdomsurveillance-stateprivacy-violationsregulatory-actioninternational-lawgdpr
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 …
Clearview AIUkraine Ministry of DefenceHoan Ton-Thatsurveillance-statemilitary-technologyauthoritarian-infrastructureinternational-conflict
Clearview AI closed a $30 million Series B funding round led by Kirenaga Partners, valuing the controversial facial recognition company at $130 million. The investment came despite ongoing privacy investigations in multiple countries and widespread regulatory findings that the company’s …
A joint investigation by the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada and provincial counterparts from Quebec, British Columbia, and Alberta concluded that Clearview AI’s scraping of billions of images of people from across the Internet represented “mass surveillance” and was a …
Office of the Privacy Commissioner of CanadaClearview AIRCMPsurveillance-stateprivacy-violationsinternational-lawregulatory-action
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 …
Kashmir HillClearview AIHoan Ton-ThatNew York Timessurveillance-stateprivacy-violationsinvestigative-journalismauthoritarian-infrastructure
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 …
Northrop Grumman’s RQ-4 Global Hawk surveillance drone program experienced massive cost escalation, with per-unit costs exploding from an initial $60.9 million in 2001 to $222.7 million per aircraft (including development costs) by 2013—a nearly four-fold increase that forced the Air Force to …
Northrop GrummanU.S. Air ForceDepartment of DefenseGovernment Accountability Office (GAO)military-industrial complexdefense contractorscost overrunssurveillance statedrone warfare+2 more
Northrop Grumman Corporation and its predecessor TRW Inc. agreed to pay $325 million to settle False Claims Act allegations that they provided and billed the National Reconnaissance Office for defective microelectronic parts used in classified spy satellites over a decade-long period from 1992 to …
Northrop GrummanTRW Inc.Department of JusticeNational Reconnaissance OfficeRobert Ferro+1 moredefense contractorsfraudfalse claims actwhistleblowersintelligence agencies+3 more
On April 12, 1954, the Atomic Energy Commission’s Personnel Security Board commenced hearings against J. Robert Oppenheimer, the American scientist who had directed the Los Alamos Laboratory during World War II as part of the Manhattan Project to develop the atomic bomb. The hearing resulted …
J. Robert OppenheimerLewis StraussGordon GrayJ. Edgar HooverWilliam L. Bordenred-scarepolitical-persecutionsurveillance-statescientific-communityinstitutional-corruption
On March 29, 1951, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were found guilty of conspiracy to commit espionage after a three-week trial that began on March 6, 1951. The couple had been charged with providing top-secret information about American radar, sonar, jet propulsion engines, and nuclear weapon designs to …
Julius RosenbergEthel RosenbergDavid GreenglassRuth GreenglassRoy Cohn+1 morered-scarepolitical-persecutionsurveillance-statedeath-penaltyinstitutional-corruption
In 1950, the State Department revoked the American passport of Paul Robeson—All-American football player, Phi Beta Kappa recipient at Rutgers, Columbia Law School graduate, internationally acclaimed concert performer, actor, and persuasive political speaker. The revocation came in response to …
Paul RobesonState DepartmentJ. Edgar HooverFBIred-scarecivil-libertiespolitical-persecutionsurveillance-stateracial-justice
On August 3, 1948, Whittaker Chambers, a former Communist Party USA member, testified under subpoena before the House Un-American Activities Committee that Alger Hiss—a former State Department official who had accompanied FDR to Yalta—had secretly been a communist while in federal service. Hiss …