Author: New Intelligence Source

Anthropic has made big news again!

In recent days, many Claude users opened their email to find a message from Anthropic. The title was unremarkable—"Privacy Policy Update Notification." But the content of the email left them stunned:

"We may ask you to verify your age or identity."

Someone shared a screenshot of the email on X, and the comments section immediately exploded. According to the email content, starting from July 8, Claude will very likely ask you for your ID. Is Anthropic's real-name verification finally coming?

Anthropic suddenly announced, is real-name verification really coming?

On June 10, many Claude users received emails from Anthropic.

The email mentioned that from July 8, Anthropic may ask users to verify their age or identity, citing "enhancing security." Interestingly, some found that they just received this email today, while other accounts had not received it earlier, suggesting that the notifications were sent in batches as part of a gray testing.

According to the officially updated privacy policy in the email, there are three core changes:

1. Multi-step tasks and data flow to third-party applications

As Claude's capabilities increase, it can execute multi-step tasks on behalf of users (such as planning a complete trip: searching for flights, booking hotels, arranging schedules) and can connect to third-party applications (such as Google Drive, Slack, Notion, etc.).

Moreover, your data will no longer just reside on Anthropic's servers. In the updated privacy policy, Anthropic explicitly states: when you connect to a certain service or allow Claude to act on your behalf, data can flow between you and third parties.

This means that your conversation content, uploaded files, and even your commands may leave Anthropic's servers and enter the processing flow of third-party applications. For ordinary users, the stronger the AI's "agency capability," the broader your data footprint will be.

2. Verification data (core change)

This is the most impactful content of this update. The original policy states:

As one of our measures to ensure service security and reliability, we may ask you to verify your age or identity. We will specify what information we collect and how we collect it.

How to verify?

According to Anthropic's official support page, verification will be conducted through a third-party service called Persona. The process includes:

• Uploading a government-issued photo ID (passport, driver's license, identity card, etc.)

• Taking a real-time selfie (to compare with the ID photo)

Anthropic tries to reassure users, emphasizing that this data is only used to confirm identity, will not be used for model training; data will not be stored on Anthropic's own servers (handled by Persona); and the entire process is only for specific security and compliance scenarios.

But this notification still caused a massive concern among users. On the X platform, a user shared a screenshot of the email, along with text: "Received on June 10, I thought it was a regular update... Looking back now, it's quite terrifying." Another user jokingly remarked: If they are going to verify identity, does this mean Fable 5 is making a comeback?

3. Research participation information

If you participate in research or interviews with Anthropic, they will collect more information.

⚠️ Important note:

The above three changes apply only to consumer-level accounts (Free, Pro, Max), and commercial clients (Team, Enterprise) are not affected. This means that ordinary individual users will be the first to be "verified."

Anthropic explains on its official support page that identity verification was previously only used in specific scenarios involving minors, violators, or accounts from unsupported regions. In the future, as agent tasks become more complex, the scope of verification will gradually expand.

In fact, verification is not a new attempt by Anthropic. They have previously employed similar verification methods when handling minor protection, violating accounts, and certain accounts in unsupported regions. The difference now is that the wording and scope are clearer, and they pointed out specifically—a sentence stating that as agent tasks become increasingly complex in the future, the scenarios requiring verification may continue to expand.

Many heavy users of agents are concerned: will they be constantly prompted to show their face for verification when using Claude for automation tasks? Currently, the officials have not provided more detailed triggering conditions, but after July 8, it is highly likely that there will be more specific clarifications.

The "wild age" of AI is coming to an end

Reflecting on the recent uproar over the "Fable 5 being banned" incident, everything seems to have been foretold.

Initially, the Fable 5 account was banned by the officials for crossing security red lines, shocking everyone. Many thought this might be a punishment aimed at specific extreme cases, but it now appears that the downfall of Fable 5 is by no means an isolated incident, but rather a prelude to Anthropic tightening controls across the entire AI industry.

As AI's abilities evolve from "chatting tools" to "omnipotent agents" capable of operating third-party applications and executing complex tasks, the officials will not allow the next Fable 5 to continue running wild outside the law.

The so-called "real-name system" and "face verification" mark that on the eve of the comprehensive explosion of AI Agents, major companies must establish an unassailable accountability mechanism in advance. Once AI makes mistakes while executing bookings, modifying documents, or even more complex business directives on your behalf, the platform must exactly know which real "person" is issuing commands from behind the screen.

Starting from July 8, every time you attempt to let Claude help you complete a complex multi-step task, it may be accompanied by a pop-up: please upload your ID.

Anthropic's message reveals—winter is coming. From now on, face verification and account bans will likely become a daily routine in the AI industry by 2026.

In a month, when using Claude, be ready to raise your ID at any time.

References:

• https://x.com/ryanmcadams/status/2066201356034011370?s=20

• https://privacy.claude.com/en/articles/10301952-updates-to-our-privacy-polic