AI AND ML
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Claude wants to know if you are who you say you are. Anthropic last week updated its privacy policy to say that it may subject consumer account holders to identity checks.
The new legalese arrived one day before the company released its Fable 5 and Mythos 5 models, presently disabled to comply with a US government export control order that has elicited protest from more than 60 cybersecurity and technical experts.
Anthropic last year said that it supported "policies like strong export controls" to keep AI away from authoritarian nations, whatever that means these days.
The revised policy, which takes effect July 8, 2026, does not say what will trigger an identity check. The company says it may do so "to help keep our services safe and secure."
"In certain circumstances, we may ask you to verify your age or identity," the company's latest privacy policy explains.
"If you choose to do so, data we will collect includes, depending on the method: an image of your government-issued identity document and the information appearing on it (such as your ID number and date of birth); your image in photo or video form, facial geometry templates (which may be considered ‘biometric data’ in some jurisdictions); and the result of the verification (for example, whether your age meets the applicable threshold)."
The revised policy substantially expands data collection to include biometrics and identity records. And it gives the company broader discretionary standards for sharing data with authorities.
The policy, which does not apply to commercial customers (Team, Enterprise, API), suggests consumer account holders (Claude Free, Pro, and Max plans) will be able to choose whether to comply.
The consequences of non-compliance are not spelled out. That omission may reflect the varying and evolving age and identity verification policies being debated, voted on, and implemented in different jurisdictions. Different laws may require different responses to non-compliance, ranging from the application of safety filters to denial of access.
Anthropic did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Over the past few years, digital safety laws designed to protect children have proliferated. There are now more than two dozen such laws in US states. Some of the recent laws have targeted AI chatbots (e.g. California Companion AI Chatbot Safety Act) and some have focused on shifting the burden of age verification to operating systems and applications (e.g. California's Digital Age Assurance Act).
Similar laws have been enacted or are pending in Australia, Brazil, the European Union, India, South Korea, and the United Kingdom among others.
Limiting the ability of children to access AI services may only be part of the motivation for the policy change. Anthropic has also been vocal about the threat posted by foreign rivals that copy its models through a process called distillation.
While the AI biz does not offer Claude family models in China (or other countries like Russia and Iran), developers in blocked countries may still be able to access Claude models using account sharing services and other workarounds – if Chinese models distilled from Claude models aren't sufficient. So identity checks may provide Anthropic with an additional policy enforcement mechanism. ®