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Claude may require identity verification in some cases

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Re: Claude may require identity verification in some cases

#21

Post by llm_nerd »

dinoqqq wrote: post #6

It's worrying that they don't specify in which cases they require identity checks.

Just a few days ago, on Friday, my 15 year old son had his Claude account suspended with a demand for ID to prove he is 18 or older. He had his own Claude Max subscription (he out-earns me fairly frequently in his circle of gaming programmers), and was unaware Anthropic had a must-be-18 rule, as was I. Their email said "Our team found signals that your account was used by a child. This breaks our rules, so we paused your access to Claude." So I guess if you ever ask a question that seems to originate from a teen or less, expect to hit an ID gate.

So now he's a Codex user. OpenAI and Google both have a minimum age of 13.

EDIT: I should note that Anthropic gave him a refund for the whole month that was underway, despite him being nearing the end of it. So good on them.

Re: Claude may require identity verification in some cases

#22

Post by Mordisquitos »

helsinkiandrew wrote: post #20
dinoqqq wrote: post #6

It's worrying that they don't specify in which cases they require identity checks.

The "Why did my account get banned after verification?" section gives some reasons: - Repeated violations of our Usage Policy - Account creation from an unsupported location - Terms of Service violations - Under-18 usage

Those are reasons for banning after verification, not reasons for requesting identity verification in the first place.

Re: Claude may require identity verification in some cases

#23

Post by trollbridge »

llm_nerd wrote: post #21
dinoqqq wrote: post #6

It's worrying that they don't specify in which cases they require identity checks.

Just a few days ago, on Friday, my 15 year old son had his Claude account suspended with a demand for ID to prove he is 18 or older. He had his own Claude Max subscription (he out-earns me fairly frequently in his circle of gaming programmers), and was unaware Anthropic had a must-be-18 rule, as was I. Their email said "Our team found signals that your account was used by a child. This breaks our rules, so we paused…

... so let me understand this.

It is frequently said that programming directly is obsolete, and the skill you must have now is knowing how to operate agentic AIs.

Yet you aren't allowed to do this until you're 18.

So, developing software is now 18+ only?

Re: Claude may require identity verification in some cases

#25

Post by varispeed »

This is deranged. Say you wanted to use AI to prepare whistleblowing submission to use regulatory language and test for any weak points. Then Claude flags it and requires you to identify yourself. It's not a stretch of imagination that before you manage to send the bundle, you find yourself in the suitcase somewhere in the woods. People explore all kinds of sensitive stuff and I see it is tempting for AI companies to see exact person behind it and then it takes one disgruntled employee to put lives in danger. WTF

Re: Claude may require identity verification in some cases

#27

Post by Kim_Bruning »

This is highly problematic.

I may consider showing my ID to a company I already have a business relationship with; given demonstrable legal obligations, contractual necessities, legitimate interests etc . Eg the standard GDPR list.

I do have an existing business relationship with Anthropic, so I might under some circumstances decide to show them my id. I don't have a business relationship with Persona though.

I understand the instinct: they want to insulate themselves from holding PII. Not the worst idea. I'm not happy with it being a third party though. Especially the third party in question.

Re: Claude may require identity verification in some cases

#28

Post by square_usual »

trollbridge wrote: post #23
llm_nerd wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a few days ago, on Friday, my 15 year old son had his Claude account suspended with a demand for ID to prove he is 18 or older. He had his own Claude Max subscription (he out-earns me fairly frequently in his circle of gaming programmers), and was unaware Anthropic had a must-be-18 rule, as was I. Their email said "Our team found signals that your account was used by a child. This breaks our rules, so we paused…

... so let me understand this. It is frequently said that programming directly is obsolete, and the skill you must have now is knowing how to operate agentic AIs. Yet you aren't allowed to do this until you're 18. So, developing software is now 18+ only?

> It is frequently said that programming directly is obsolete

Who says this?

Re: Claude may require identity verification in some cases

#29

Post by helsinkiandrew »

Mordisquitos wrote: post #22
helsinkiandrew wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "Why did my account get banned after verification?" section gives some reasons: - Repeated violations of our Usage Policy - Account creation from an unsupported location - Terms of Service violations - Under-18 usage

Those are reasons for banning after verification, not reasons for requesting identity verification in the first place.

Wouldn't the reasons for requesting identification be the same those for banning people - the system has flagged that you might be from the wrong location/under 18/creating multiple free acounts etc - so is validating.

Re: Claude may require identity verification in some cases

#30

Post by LoganDark »

Persona is bad news. They should not be using Persona. This is bad.

> Your ID and selfie are collected and held by Persona, not on Anthropic's systems. Anthropic can access verification records through Persona's platform when needed—for example, to review an appeal—but we don't copy or store those images ourselves.

It's unacceptable that this data is persisted at all, let alone that it's persisted by Persona.

> Persona is contractually limited in how they can use your data: only to provide and support verification and to improve their ability to prevent fraud. They're bound to protect it with industry-standard security controls and delete it in line with the retention limits we've set and applicable law.

It's good to hear that they're criminals. That means nothing for me though. Nothing.

> Why did my account get banned after verification?

This is bad. Why do they wait to ban until after they have your personal info? Venmo did the same thing to me: They didn't tell me I was banned until they had my ID. Absolutely despicable practice.

---

Anthropic is one of my favorite AI companies because they get LLMs more right than anyone else I've seen. But unfortunately this also means they can be swindled by social manipulation in lieu of technical excellence; the same type of brain results in both, I've seen it.

Persona is a bout of sociopaths, and it shows: they're worming their way into everything despite the well-documented conspiracy. They're doing it out in the open with zero consequences.

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