Anthropic says Claude might want to see your ID

Anthropic may ask Claude users to verify their age and identity by uploading government-issued documents, according to a new version of the company’s privacy policy.

The AI ​​giant says the move was to allow users to appeal after their accounts were flagged for possible fraudulent activity rather than ban them outright, but it comes as Anthropic seeks to appease the Trump administration amid an ongoing standoff over who has access to the company’s AI tools.

According to a new section in the latest privacy policy published earlier in June and set to take effect on July 8, Anthropic says it will ask a user to prove their age or identity “in certain circumstances,” without providing specific examples.

While Anthropic has long required users to be over 18 to use Claude, earlier this year the company introduced age verification checks to comply with various states and countries requiring it. Identity verifications were also announced, but were not reflected in the company’s privacy policy until recently.

When activated, the policy will require these users to upload a scanned image of their government-issued passport or driver’s license. Anthropic says it will also collect a photo or video of the person and a digital version of the person as a template for facial geometry (which some states, like Illinois, consider legally protected biometric data). Anthropic says it will also keep a record of the verification result, such as whether the user has reached a certain age.

When TechCrunch reached out to Anthropic spokesperson Michael Aciman, he shared a link to X’s post from Anthropic’s Thariq Shihpar, saying the change only applies to a “small subset of users” whose accounts have been flagged but not banned outright. (An Anthropic spokesperson wouldn’t say how many users that represents a subset, but the company is believed to have tens of millions of monthly users.)

“[Anthropic’s identity verification policy] “It was updated on June 17 as an update to the appeals process,” Shihpar said in the post. “It has nothing to do with bringing up Fable or Mythos.”

Anthropic said it is permitted to require users to upload a copy of their IDs for a number of reasons, such as requiring users to verify themselves to create and manage their Claude account, enforcing its terms of service, such as preventing and investigating fraud, abuse, and violations of its terms, including illegal or criminal conduct, and investigating and resolving security issues.

This move to maintain close monitoring of who uses Anthropic’s AI tools may be one way for the company to comply with a variety of ongoing legal challenges, regulatory changes, and internal pressures from the Trump administration.

The tech giant remains largely in hot water with the White House, more than a week after Trump officials effectively forced Anthropic to pull its latest cybersecurity models over claims that an apparent jailbreak could break the models’ guardrails. Other reports pointed to personality clashes between the company and the Trump administration as the biggest reason for the breakdown in relations.

This latest clash comes months after the Department of Defense classified Anthropic as a “supply chain risk,” apparently in retaliation for not allowing the government to use its technology for mass domestic surveillance or operate fully autonomous weapons.

Anthropic said it uses San Francisco-based Persona as an identity verification provider, and that users may “see a verification prompt when accessing certain capabilities, as part of our routine platform health checks, or other safety and compliance measures.”

Anthropic said it decides how long Persona will retain its users’ identity documents, but an Anthropic spokesperson did not immediately say when the data was deleted. (To clarify, Roblox, another Persona client, says users’ photos are deleted “immediately” after they are processed, limiting the chance of information leaking or being stolen later.)

Persona can still stand up to US government demands for user information it stores on its servers.

Persona is backed by Founder’s Fund, an investment firm founded by Trump supporter Peter Thiel, who also invests in Anthropic. The identity verification company has faced criticism from users over its links to Thiel. Earlier this year, Discord selected a character for age verification checks and then quickly backtracked after user backlash for choosing a character.