ClearView AI, a controversial face recognition startup, which created a database of 30 billion photos by scraping the web with a statement provided for TechCrunch.
The general director, Hoan Ton-That, said “It’s time for the next chapter in my life” and that he would remain as a member of the management board of ClearView AI. He refused to comment when he asked for more details about what clearly caused his resignation. The message sounded First reported by Forbes.
ClearView AI now has two “coexisting”, early investor Hal Lambert and co -founder Richard Schwartz, who wants to make use of recent “possibilities” under Trump’s administration, in accordance with the ClearView AI statement sent to TechCrunch.
Both men have a long history in republican policy. Lambert’s investment company, Point Bridge Capital, is best known for launching Magician ETF In 2017, which invests in corporations supporting republican candidates. Meanwhile, Schwartz served as Senior adviser Rudy Giuliani during his term as the mayor of New York.
ClearView AI sells access to facial recognition database to law enforcement agencies and federal agencies that use it to discover suspicious or find lost people. Because the startup got photos without the consent of individuals, she needed to repel many privacy and a superb.
From September 2024, Clearview AI collected over $ 100 million a superb of the GDPR from European Data Protection Agencies in the Netherlands, France and other countries. ClearView AI remained historically reluctant, refusing to pay these fines. (Clearview didn’t answer the request for a comment from TechCrunch asking if he had paid something else).
ClearView AI also faced a lawsuit of a conservative investor and a self -proclaimed journalist Charles Johnson about the claim that he was a co -founder and was in charge the committee. Johnson recently dropped the suit legal application. But the mutual claims of ClearView AI in the lawsuit, which accuse defamation and violation of the contract against Johnson, are a biometric update Reported.
Ton-that refused to develop their plans when TechCrunch was asked. According to his statement, ClearView AI is in his “strongest position in financial history”, achieving the highest growth and revenues in 2024. However, the startup fought to win large federal contracts and stays unprofitable, Forbes, Forbes Reported.
ClearView AI, whose investors switch on Peter Thiel and Naval Ravikant collected $ 30 million in the B -series round in 2021, which valued the company at $ 130 million, in accordance with A. Publish on your website.