A controversial facial recognition company that’s built a massive photographic dossier of the world’s people for use by police, national governments and the Ukrainian military now plans to offer its technology to banks and other private businesses.
Hoan Ton-That, CEO of Clearview AI, talks to reporters in New York, Tuesday, Feb. 22, 2022. Ton-That disclosed the plans Friday, April 1, 2022, to The Associated Press to clarify a recent federal court filing that suggested the company was up for sale. “We don’t have any plans to sell the company,” he said.
“We don’t have any plans to sell the company,” he said. Instead, he said the New York startup is looking to launch a new business venture to compete with the likes of Amazon and Microsoft in verifying people's identity using facial recognition. Regulators from Australia to Canada, France and Italy have taken measures to try to stop Clearview from pulling people's faces into its facial recognition engine without their consent. So have tech giants such as Google and Facebook. A group of U.S. lawmakers earlier this year warned that “Clearview AI’s technology could eliminate public anonymity in the United States."
The minutes also said the “sale of Clearview’s app” would be discussed further once the company discloses more details to the plaintiffs. Illinois' Biometric Information Privacy Act allows consumers to sue companies that don’t get permission before harvesting data such as faces and fingerprints. Asked about future commercial applications during an interview with the AP in late February, Ton-That emphasized his company's ongoing focus on police work.
He added at the time that if the company shifted to other uses, it would let the public and courts know about it. He downplayed what he described as the “lofty goals” that Clearview pitched to prospective investors in a document the Washington Post reported on in February.
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