Anthropic has updated its privacy policy for its AI chatbot Claude. Starting July 8th, the company may—in certain situations—require users to verify their age or identity by uploading a copy of a government-issued ID card, passport, or driving license, reports TechCrunch.
According to Anthropic, these checks may be used to manage user accounts, prevent fraud, investigate misuse and security incidents, and ensure compliance with their terms of service.
The company also says that it’ll store the results of the verification, for example, to check whether a user has reached a certain age. The identity checks will be handled by the US-based service Persona.
Anthropic says the measure will only affect a small proportion of users, but it’s a concerning move that has some Claude users rightfully on edge. Discord recently caught a lot of flak for its age verification policy, and Reddit similarly experienced backlash for considering ID verification as a way to tackle its bot problem. Months before that, ChatGPT implemented age verification after a high-profile teen suicide.
