In Brief: Anthropic is implementing mandatory identity verification for private Claude users to technically enforce export restrictions on advanced models.
Starting July 8, 2026, Anthropic will conduct age and identity verification for users of the free and paid Claude plans. The measure aims to comply with US export controls and youth protection regulations.
AI company Anthropic has updated its privacy policy and, as of July 8, 2026, will conduct age and identity verification for users of Claude Free, Claude Pro, and Claude Max plans. The verification applies exclusively to private accounts; business customers with Team, Enterprise, or API access are exempt. Anthropic cites enhanced service security as the justification, without specifying concrete criteria that would trigger verification.
The verification process may collect the following data: images of government-issued identification documents with identification numbers and dates of birth, photographs or video recordings of the user, biometric templates of facial morphology, and the verification result itself. Anthropic emphasizes that verification data is handled separately from the training process and that the company continues not to sell user data or display advertising.
The move follows immediately on regulatory constraints imposed by the US government. On June 12, 2026, the US Department of Commerce under Howard Lutnick blocked worldwide access to the models Claude Fable 5 and Claude Mythos 5 – even for foreign employees of Anthropic itself. The reason is US export controls against China and Russia, which are intended to prevent misuse of advanced American AI systems by intelligence agencies or military actors.
Anthropic was unable to verify user nationality in real time and therefore deactivated the models entirely. With the identity verification measures, the company is now creating the technical infrastructure to selectively enforce export restrictions and youth protection regulations and to prevent future model lockdowns.
Source: www.it-daily.net · Published June 17, 2026
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