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Anthropic quickly removed a tracker that secretly monitored Claude Code users in China after a security researcher publicly hidden code and criticizes tracking like spyware as “a serious violation of user trust.”
Last week, a web developer named “Thereallo” investigated the privacy of Claude Code and was surprised to find that the AI company is using “prompt steganography” to hide the code that tracks Chinese users “in the open.” This code wasn’t malicious, but it was sending information to Anthropic that most users wouldn’t recognize, relying on shorthand scripts to silently inform users of their time, proxy, and potential connections to China’s own AI labs. Anthropic is accused of opposing distillation.
At X, Anthropic engineer Thariq Shihipar confirmed that the tracker was added to Claude Code as an “experiment” in March. According to Shihipar, the rules “were designed to prevent abuse of accounts from unauthorized sellers and to protect against distillation.” As for the past, The Washington Post found out Unauthorized vendors will sell access to free versions for $1 per month, with paid subscriptions that can be purchased for $100 per month selling for “less than $12.”
