Hoan Ton-That—Ton-That settled ACLU BIPA lawsuit resulting in nationwide ban on Clearview AI sales to private entities
In May 2022, Clearview AI under Ton-That's leadership settled the ACLU's lawsuit filed under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act (BIPA). The settlement permanently banned Clearview from making its faceprint database available to most businesses and private entities nationwide, and barred sales to any Illinois entity including police for five years. A subsequent March 2025 class-action settlement granted class members a 23% equity stake in Clearview AI, valued at roughly $51.75 million, representing one of the largest biometric privacy settlements in history.
Scoring Impact
| Topic | Direction | Relevance | Contribution |
|---|---|---|---|
| Surveillance Technology | +toward | secondary | -0.50 |
| User Privacy | -against | primary | -1.00 |
| Overall incident score = | -0.498 | ||
Score = avg(topic contributions) × significance (high ×1.5) × confidence (0.59)× agency (reactive ×0.75)
Evidence (1 signal)
ACLU settled BIPA lawsuit permanently banning Clearview AI sales to private entities nationwide
The ACLU's 2020 lawsuit under the Illinois Biometric Information Privacy Act resulted in a May 2022 settlement permanently banning Clearview from making its database available to most businesses and private entities nationwide. A subsequent March 2025 class-action settlement granted class members a 23% equity stake in Clearview AI valued at roughly $51.75 million.