Anthropic now requires passports and selfie verification for use of its services for select users according to a recent blog post from the company.
"We are rolling out identity verification for a few use cases, and you might see a verification prompt when accessing certain capabilities, as part of our routine platform integrity checks, or other safety and compliance measures," the company said.
These requirements involve providing the AI corporation with a photo holding the physical version of valid government-issued photo ID, taking a live selfie with the phone, or webcam and waiting up to five minutes for the verification process to complete.
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The move is not in line with the company's image which indicated a focus on data privacy and ethics due to its zero data retention policy where it does not store user data or the responses that it generates on its servers. This is in contrast to peers like Chat GPT that utilise user data to train its models.
Many ChatGPT users also migrated to Anthropic over concerns over the company's deal with the US's Pentagon Defence Department to use for its classified networks. Anthropic saw a 60% surge in its free subscriptions in February after it refused this deal with the US government.
Commenters on social media noted that the company was not complying with a government directive but implementing this feature by its own volition, with some remarking that the move was "handing their competitors a gift.
Claude now requires government ID verification (via Persona) before subscription.
— Kai (@hqmank) April 15, 2026
ChatGPT doesn't.
Gemini doesn't.
Anthropic just handed their competitors a gift. pic.twitter.com/dddISAtx8M
Anthropic has chosen Persona Identities, a third party service provider for the verification process which involves a physical and undamaged government document such as a passport, driver's license or state/provincial ID card and a national identity card.
The company said that the verification data would stay between the user, Anthropic and Persona Identities and would not be used for purposes outside of verification.
"Our verification data is never shared with third parties for marketing, advertising, or any purpose unrelated to verification and compliance," the blog post said.
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A spokesperson told the publication Decrypt that this would apply to a "small number" of cases where fraudulent or abusive behaviour is indicated by the user's activity.
This arrangement also raises questions regarding the integrity of the user's verification data after recent cases of third part service providers being hacked, such as with Tata Consultancy Services in April 2025. A more pertinent example was regarding Discord, where an October 2025 hack exposed 70,000 users' personal data, which was submitted for verification.
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