Users of Anthropic’s Claude AI platform will soon be required to provide a government-issued ID, such as a passport or driver’s license, in order to use the service.
The company confirmed that users will need to provide identification to access “certain capabilities” within Claude AI tools, but stated that it was part of its “routine platform integrity checks.”
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Claude User Data
“Being responsible with powerful technology starts with knowing who is using it,” explains a Claude Support post describing the news. “Identity verification helps us prevent abuse, enforce our usage policies, and comply with legal obligations.”
“We are implementing identity verification for some use cases, and you may see a verification message when accessing certain capabilities, as part of our routine platform integrity checks or other security and compliance measures.”
As part of the verification process, Anthropic says users may also be asked to take a live selfie with their phone or webcam to prove their identity, and the company says the entire process “typically takes less than five minutes.”
Government-issued IDs “from most countries” will be accepted as long as they include a photo of the user (for example, passport, driver’s license, state/provincial ID card, or national ID card).
Photocopies, screenshots, scans or photographs of a photo will not be accepted, nor will digital or mobile IDs, student IDs, employee credentials, library cards, bank cards or temporary paper IDs.
Providing an ID is typical for accessing some technology platforms, but given the recent controversies surrounding some of Anthropic’s services, users may be concerned about the security of their data.
The company says that because it is the data controller, it sets the rules for how it is used and how long it is stored. The data will be held on Persona’s systems and processed on behalf of Anthropic, meaning Anthropic can access verification records through the Persona platform when necessary, for example if it needs to review an appeal, but does not copy or store those images.
Anthropic was also very clear that it does not use identity data to train its models, noting that “verification data is used solely to confirm who you are and to comply with our legal and security obligations” and that it requests the minimum amount required to verify a user’s identity.
“We do not share your identity data with anyone else,” he added. “Verification data remains between you, Persona and Anthropic, except where we are legally required to respond to valid legal processes. Your verification data is never shared with third parties for marketing, advertising or any purpose unrelated to verification and compliance.”
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