Overview
- Anthropic has begun a selective rollout of identity checks for Claude, saying only a few use cases will prompt verification without specifying which features are gated.
- Users asked to verify must upload a physical passport, driver’s license, or national ID plus a live selfie through partner Persona, and the system rejects scans and digital IDs.
- The company says prompts focus on suspected fraud or abuse, under‑18 use, terms‑of‑service breaches, or access from unsupported regions, and confirmed violations can lead to bans.
- Anthropic states that Persona holds the ID images and selfies under contract, that data is encrypted in transit and at rest, and that verification data is not used to train models.
- The move has drawn broad pushback online and early reports of access disruption and workarounds in mainland China, while competitors like ChatGPT and Gemini do not require similar checks for standard use.