Overview
- Anthropic updated its privacy policy in June and says the new verification flow will take effect July 8 for a small subset of flagged Claude accounts.
- When triggered the company may require a government-issued ID, a live selfie photo or video, and a digitized face-geometry template as proof of age or identity.
- Anthropic says the checks are meant for account administration, fraud and abuse investigations, terms enforcement, and security incidents, and that the flow is handled by verification vendor Persona.
- Privacy and legal experts flagged risks because some U.S. laws, including in Illinois, treat facial templates as protected biometric data, and Anthropic has not detailed how long Persona or the company will retain verification files.
- The change comes as Anthropic faces tightened U.S. government scrutiny, recent model takedowns, and a confidential IPO filing, which together make identity controls and third-party vendor ties—Persona is backed by Founders Fund—especially sensitive.