His technological and philanthropic feats are extremely exaggerated and are used for the express purpose of civilian surveillance. Despite calling themselves "digital defenders of children," Thorn has multiple arms that work with the CIA under the guise of helping with trafficking. The statistics these organizations use about trafficking [are made up](https://truthout.org/articles/special-report-money-and-lies-in-anti-human-trafficking-ngos/). From [this article](https://www.engadget.com/2019-05-31-sex-lies-and-surveillance-fosta-privacy.html), Thorn "claimed that "100,000 to 300,000 children are turning to prostitution every year." But a two-month investigation using law enforcement data showed that there were 8,263 arrests across America for underage sex work over the past ten years." They are also notoriously shady about talking about what they actually do with their AI software, stating to Congress, that they ["can't disclose how it works,"](https://reason.com/2017/02/15/ashton-kutcher-plays-sex-worker-savior/) but Thorn does supply the police with ["'free' CIA-linked surveillance tools to 'protect kids.'"](https://unlimitedhangout.com/2020/09/investigative-reports/ashton-kutchers-ngo-supplies-police-with-free-cia-linked-surveillance-tool-to-protect-kids/) In reality, they have successfully made the world a much more dangerous place for adult sex workers with SESTA/FOSTA, and who knows what they're doing with the CIA and the police. Their software, Spotlight, is also used by the Department of Homeland Security, and is linked with Amazon's "Rekognition," which famously [falsely matched 28 members of congress with mugshots.](https://www.aclu.org/blog/privacy-technology/surveillance-technologies/amazons-face-recognition-falsely-matched-28) Amazon is also, "aggressively marketing its face surveillance technology to police, boasting that its service can identify up to 100 faces in a single image, track people in real time through surveillance cameras, and scan footage from body cameras. A sheriff’s department in Oregon has already started using Amazon Rekognition to compare people’s faces against a mugshot database, without any public debate."