Clearview AI: Difference between revisions

Clearview AI
Basic information
Founded	2017
Legal Structure	Private
Industry	Artificial Intelligence, Surveillance Technology
Also known as
Official website	clearview.ai

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Revision as of 17:27, 29 September 2025

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Clearview AI, Inc. is an American facial recognition company, providing software to law enforcement, government agencies, and private companies. The AI-software matches faces to a database of more than 20 billion images collected from the Internet, including social media applications. The company maintained a low profile until late 2019, when its usage by law enforcement was first reported^[1].

The software is purportedly as simple as taking a photo of someone in public, then searching Clearview AI's database of over 3 billion photos which retrieves social media accounts connected to that person from all across the web^[1].

Clearview AI was founded by Hoan Ton-That, Charles C. Johnson, and Richard Shwartz. Ton-That is a university dropout who began his career by creating phishing applications and computer worms and was subsequently investigated by police^{[citation needed]}. Shwartz is a politician who worked for New York mayors Rudy Guiliani and Ed Koch among other politicians^{[citation needed]}. Johnson is a right-wing political activist and potential FBI informant^[2].

Consumer-impact summary

Overview of concerns that arise from the conduct towards users of the product (if applicable):

User freedom
User privacy
Business model
Market control

Add your text below this box. Once this section is complete, delete this box by clicking on it and pressing backspace.

Incidents

Add one-paragraph summaries of incidents below in sub-sections, which link to each incident's main article while linking to the main article and including a short summary. It is acceptable to create an incident summary before the main page for an incident has been created. To link to the page use the "Hatnote" or "Main" templates.

If the company has numerous incidents then format them in a table (see Amazon for an example).

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This is a list of all consumer-protection incidents this company is involved in. Any incidents not mentioned here can be found in the Clearview AI category.

Example incident one (date)

Main article: link to the main CR Wiki article

Short summary of the incident (could be the same as the summary preceding the article).

Example incident two (date)

...

Entities reported to use Clearview AI

Walmart

References

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 Mac, Ryan (23 Jan 2020). "Clearview AI Says Its Facial Recognition Software Identified A Terrorism Suspect. The Cops Say That's Not True". Buzzfeed News.
↑ Schwartz, Mattathias (19 Oct 2023). "Exclusive: Tech billionaire Peter Thiel was an FBI informant". Business Insider.

[:0-1] 1.0 ^1.1 Mac, Ryan (23 Jan 2020). "Clearview AI Says Its Facial Recognition Software Identified A Terrorism Suspect. The Cops Say That's Not True". Buzzfeed News.

[2] Schwartz, Mattathias (19 Oct 2023). "Exclusive: Tech billionaire Peter Thiel was an FBI informant". Business Insider.

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@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
-{{CompanyCargo
+{{StubNotice}}{{CompanyCargo
 |Founded=2017
 |Industry=Artificial Intelligence, Surveillance Technology
 |Type=Private
-|Website=https://www.clearview.ai
+|Website=clearview.ai
 |Description=AI facial recognition software company
-}}
+}}'''Clearview AI, Inc.''' is an American facial recognition company, providing software to law enforcement, government agencies, and private companies. The AI-software matches faces to a database of more than 20 billion images collected from the Internet, including social media applications. The company maintained a low profile until late 2019, when its usage by law enforcement was first reported<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |last=Mac |first=Ryan |date=23 Jan 2020 |title=Clearview AI Says Its Facial Recognition Software Identified A Terrorism Suspect. The Cops Say That's Not True. |url=https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/ryanmac/clearview-ai-nypd-facial-recognition |website=Buzzfeed News}}</ref>.
-{{Ph-C-Int}}
+The software is purportedly as simple as taking a photo of someone in public, then searching Clearview AI's database of over 3 billion photos which retrieves social media accounts connected to that person from all across the web<ref name=":0" />.
+Clearview AI was founded by Hoan Ton-That, Charles C. Johnson, and Richard Shwartz. Ton-That is a university dropout who began his career by creating phishing applications and computer worms and was subsequently investigated by police{{Citation needed}}. Shwartz is a politician who worked for New York mayors Rudy Guiliani and Ed Koch among other politicians{{Citation needed}}. Johnson is a right-wing political activist and potential FBI informant<ref>{{Cite web |last=Schwartz |first=Mattathias |date=19 Oct 2023 |title=Exclusive: Tech billionaire Peter Thiel was an FBI informant |url=https://www.businessinsider.com/peter-thiel-fbi-informant-charles-johnson-johnathan-buma-chs-genius-2023-10 |website=Business Insider}}</ref>.
 ==Consumer-impact summary==
@@ Line 21: / Line 24: @@
 ...
-==Products==
+==Entities reported to use Clearview AI==
-{{Ph-C-P}}
+*[[Walmart]]
 ==See also==