Overview
- Anthropic is adding identity verification to certain Claude features through vendor Persona, requiring a government photo ID and sometimes a live selfie, with copies, digital IDs, and student or temporary cards rejected.
- The company says verification data is used only to confirm identity and meet legal and safety duties, is shared only among the user, Persona, and Anthropic, and is not used to train models or for marketing.
- Users report that prompts to verify have been followed by account suspensions, and Anthropic’s FAQ lists reasons for disabling accounts after checks such as policy violations, unsupported locations, terms breaches, or use by people under 18.
- Privacy worries center on Persona’s terms that cite multiple subprocessors and allow data use to improve anti‑fraud systems, which critics say increases exposure if sensitive ID data is reused or leaked.
- Enforcement of Anthropic’s 18+ policy has drawn fresh scrutiny after a reported case of a 15‑year‑old subscriber losing access and receiving a refund, as rivals like OpenAI and Google set a 13+ minimum, and some analysts question the need for KYC given existing credit‑card checks, telemetry, and model safeguards.