Anthropic installed a spyware bridge on my machine?

#1

Post by twapi » Mon, Apr 20, 2026, 2:41 AM UTC

Anthropic installed a spyware bridge on my machine?
thatprivacyguy.com

Re: Anthropic installed a spyware bridge on my machine?

#2

Post by _wire_ » Mon, Apr 20, 2026, 3:05 AM UTC

[flagged]

Re: Anthropic installed a spyware bridge on my machine?

#3

Post by timfsu » Mon, Apr 20, 2026, 3:22 AM UTC

I might call it a few different things, but spyware seems disingenuous until we learn that it’s actually spying…

Re: Anthropic installed a spyware bridge on my machine?

#4

Post by Nevin1901 » Mon, Apr 20, 2026, 3:24 AM UTC

timfsu wrote: post #3

I might call it a few different things, but spyware seems disingenuous until we learn that it’s actually spying…

But that won't fit the narrative that Antrhopic is an evil company nickel and diming their users...

Re: Anthropic installed a spyware bridge on my machine?

#5

Post by bpodgursky » Mon, Apr 20, 2026, 3:25 AM UTC

You should not install Claude Desktop or Claude Code unless you trust Anthropic. You either trust them to be a responsible custodian of your compute environment or you don't.

I mean it almost doesn't matter what is installed at any given time, the agent is going to install stuff you can't realistically observe, the software will auto-update, there is simply no way you can be sure spyware won't end up on your computer.

Re: Anthropic installed a spyware bridge on my machine?

#6

Post by Trufa » Mon, Apr 20, 2026, 3:27 AM UTC

timfsu wrote: post #3

I might call it a few different things, but spyware seems disingenuous until we learn that it’s actually spying…

Yes, very possibly bloatware fits it more, a shit pattern, and very dubious behavior but not necessarily spyware.

Re: Anthropic installed a spyware bridge on my machine?

#7

Post by catcowcostume » Mon, Apr 20, 2026, 3:27 AM UTC

Nevin1901 wrote: post #4

timfsu wrote: post #3

I might call it a few different things, but spyware seems disingenuous until we learn that it’s actually spying…

But that won't fit the narrative that Antrhopic is an evil company nickel and diming their users...

As if we needed more evidence to corroborate that.

Re: Anthropic installed a spyware bridge on my machine?

#8

Post by dankwizard » Mon, Apr 20, 2026, 3:28 AM UTC

_wire_ wrote: post #2

[flagged]

[flagged]

Re: Anthropic installed a spyware bridge on my machine?

#9

Post by jimmydoe » Mon, Apr 20, 2026, 3:29 AM UTC

I double Anthropic did this, as apparently people copy this manually and it's still not working :

https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/14616

Of course if they actually did it, without your consent, that's really really bad.

Re: Anthropic installed a spyware bridge on my machine?

#10

Post by ibash » Mon, Apr 20, 2026, 3:29 AM UTC

That’s not spyware, that’s just how native messaging is designed to work. You have to put a manifest there if you want the native messaging to work later.