Central position in biometrics and privacy debate "an honor," Clearview AI CEO says

In a one-hour-long video interview with This Week in Startups, Clearview AI CEO Hoan Ton-That discusses the misconceptions around biometric facial recognition, arguing his technology is "a tool to help get a lead" and only "used when there is probable cause for a crime." In the middle of an international scandal, the New York startup had signed over 2,400 service contracts with law enforcement agencies to deploy its facial recognition software, at the time of the interview in May. Interviewer Jason Calacanis based his interview on a New York Times investigation discussing the company's business strategy to scrape images from social networks. Despite the controversy, Ton-That claims "it's an honor to be at the center of the debate now and talk about privacy," and confirms the paper's reporting is "extremely fair." The interview was recorded in May, but posted this week, as protests against police violence gripped America and changed the context of discussions on law enforcement tools.