--- description: Find out why Clearview AI was selected for the inaugural list title: TIME100 Most Influential Companies 2021: Clearview AI image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt531f7703aa733552/698a18e1b3fce37f5d0c7dbb/clearview-ai-time100-companies.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 26, 2021 # Clearview AI Innovating Facial Recognition by [Don Steinberg](/author/don-steinberg/) ## Don Steinberg Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close  Thea Traff Clearview AI’s innovative facial-recognition tools—which scan a database of more than 3 billion images to identify people from photos—are used by thousands of U.S. police departments to pinpoint crime suspects; earlier this year, it helped authorities ID some of the [U.S. Capitol rioters](https://time.com/5953486/january-capitol-attack-investigation/ "undefined"). But civil rights advocates fear abuses, with some groups and governments calling for a ban on the tools, whose use one Canadian official likened to “mass surveillance.” CEO Hoan Ton-That says the company is working with law enforcement to balance privacy and security. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-companies/5953748/clearview-ai/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-companies/5953748/clearview-ai/"},"headline":"Clearview AI","datePublished":"2021-04-26T15:52:07.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-31T05:08:52.664Z","description":"","url":"https://time.com/collections/time100-companies/5953748/clearview-ai/","keywords":["Lists","franchise","TIME100 Companies"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt531f7703aa733552/698a18e1b3fce37f5d0c7dbb/clearview-ai-time100-companies.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Don Steinberg","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/don-steinberg/"}],"creator":"Don Steinberg","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt531f7703aa733552/698a18e1b3fce37f5d0c7dbb/clearview-ai-time100-companies.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/time100-companies/5953748/clearview-ai/","name":"Clearview AI"}}]}] ```