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Hoan Ton-That

Hoan Ton-That

Hoan Ton-That is the founder of Clearview AI, a technology company that produces facial recognition software law enforcement agencies.[15]

Career

In 2009, Ton-That created a site that let people share links to videos with all the contacts in their instant messengers. Ton-That shut it down after it was branded a “phishing scam.” In 2015, he spun up Trump Hair, which added President Trump’s haircut to people in a photo, and a photo-sharing program.[15]

Ton-That moved to New York in 2016. Tall and slender, with long black hair, he considered a modeling career, he said, but after one shoot he returned to trying to figure out the next big thing in tech. He began reading academic papers on artificial intelligence, image recognition and manchine learning.[15]

Ton-That met Richard Schwartz in 2016 at a book event at the Manhattan Institute, a conservative think tank. The two soon decided to go into the facial recognition business together and created Clearview AI. Richard Schwartz was an aide to Rudy Giuliani when he was mayor of New York. Clearview AI was later backed financially by Peter Thiel, a venture capitalist behind Facebook and Palantir.[15]

Clearview AI

Created in 2016, Clearview AI has a massive database. The company claims to have scraped more than 3 billion photos from the internet, including from popular social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube. Clearview retains those photos in its database even after users delete them from the platforms or make their accounts private. Clearview sells access to its database to law enforcement agencies, so those agencies can match unknown faces to other images.[17]

By the end of 2017, the company had a facial recognition tool, which it called Smartcheckr.

Even after a second funding round in 2019, Clearview remains tiny, having raised $7 million from investors, according to PitchBook, a website that tracks investments in start-ups.[15]

Personal Life

Hoan Ton-Thas was born in Australia. He is of Vietnamese descent. As a student he was ranked #1 solo competitor in Australia’s Informatics Olympiad. He was also ranked #2 guitarist under age 16 in Australia’s National Eisteddford Music Competition.[1]

In 2007, he dropped out of college and moved to San Francisco.[15]

References

[1]
Citation Linkhoantonthat.comHoan's Hoanpage.He has been ballin since the age of 19..
Dec 1, 2015, 12:14 AM
[2]
Citation Linkyoutube.comThis is the YouTubechannel of Hoan.
Oct 18, 2016, 9:30 AM
[3]
Citation Linkangel.coThis is the AngelListof Hoan.
Oct 18, 2016, 9:48 AM
[4]
Citation Linkinstagram.comThis is the Instagramof Hoan.
Oct 18, 2016, 10:06 AM
[5]
Citation Linkywqaugeunhowzrcj.public.blob.vercel-storage.com[12]
Oct 18, 2016, 10:07 AM
[6]
Citation Linkywqaugeunhowzrcj.public.blob.vercel-storage.com[12]
Oct 18, 2016, 10:08 AM
[7]
Citation Linkywqaugeunhowzrcj.public.blob.vercel-storage.com[3]
Oct 18, 2016, 10:09 AM
[8]
Citation Linkywqaugeunhowzrcj.public.blob.vercel-storage.com[3]
Oct 18, 2016, 10:09 AM
[9]
Citation Linkgithub.comThis is Hoan's profile on GitHub.
Oct 18, 2016, 10:12 AM
[10]
Citation Linksf.metblogs.comArticle about the controversy behind the IM worm that apparently Hoan coded to infiltrate Gmail.
Oct 18, 2016, 10:18 AM
[11]
Citation Linkrepublic.coHoan's profile on Republic.
Oct 18, 2016, 10:20 AM
[12]
Citation Linkopen.spotify.comHoan on Spotify.
Oct 18, 2016, 10:22 AM
[13]
Citation Linkfacebook.comHoan Ton-That's primary Facebook page.
Dec 1, 2015, 12:13 AM
[15]
Citation Linkwww.nytimes.comArticle on ClearView AI's practices.
Jan 19, 2020, 9:23 PM
[17]
Citation Linkedition.cnn.comThis man says he's stockpiling billions of our photos
Feb 19, 2020, 11:46 AM
[19]
Citation Linkywqaugeunhowzrcj.public.blob.vercel-storage.comphoto of Hoan Ton-That
Feb 19, 2020, 11:53 AM
[20]
Citation Linkywqaugeunhowzrcj.public.blob.vercel-storage.comphoto of Hoan Ton-That
Feb 19, 2020, 11:53 AM