“It was called Clearview—and the idea, as Johnson explained to Thiel, was simple: He and Ton-That had written software to browse Facebook profiles, as well as profiles uploaded to other social networks, and then to download every picture that users had ever posted, storing a copy along with that person’s name. They would offer this database to police departments and other law enforcement groups along with a facial recognition algorithm. These tools working in concert would allow police to take a picture of an unidentified culprit, upload it into the software, and get a name back.”