This man says he's stockpiling billions of our photos...even Big Brother is worried

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If Hoan Ton-That is feeling the pressure, he isn't showing it.

Over the last month, fears about facial recognition technology and police surveillance have intensified, all thanks to Ton-That's startup, Clearview AI.

First came a front-page investigation in The New York Times, revealing Clearview has been working with law enforcement agencies to match photos of unknown faces to people's online images. Next, cease-and-desist letters rolled in from tech giants Twitter, Google and Facebook. Lawmakers made inquiries and New Jersey enacted a statewide ban on law enforcement using Clearview while it looks into the software.

But during an interview at CNN's studios in New York City last week, Ton-That didn't seem particularly fazed, saying the last few weeks were "interesting."

He demonstrated the technology and described himself as "honored" to kick off a broader conversation about facial recognition and privacy. He's eager to build a "great American company" with "the best of intentions" and wouldn't sell his product to Iran, Russia or China, he said. He claimed the technology is saving kids and solving crimes. And he said he welcomes government regulation...



...CNN Business saw firsthand how the technology works in a demonstration last week.

First, Ton-That ran a photo of my face though the database, pulling up in seconds multiple different pictures of me from across the internet.

Most jarringly, he found a photo that I had probably not seen in more than a decade, a picture that ran in a local newspaper in Ireland when I was 15-years-old and in high school. Needless to say, I look a lot different now than I did then; in fact, my producer, who has to spend far more time than she'd like looking at me through a camera, didn't even recognize me. But the system did.

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