You Switched to Claude Over Surveillance Fears. Now It Wants Your Passport

Claude now requires government ID verification (via Persona) before subscription.

ChatGPT doesn't.
Gemini doesn't.

Anthropic just handed their competitors a gift. pic.twitter.com/dddISAtx8M

— Kai (@hqmank) April 15, 2026

According to the help center page, which went live on April 14, Anthropic selected Persona Identities as its verification partner—the same KYC infrastructure used across financial services—and requires a physical, undamaged passport, driver's license, or national identity card. Photocopies, mobile IDs, and student credentials don't count. A live selfie may also be required.

The policy isn't universal yet. Verification will trigger when accessing "certain capabilities," during "routine platform integrity checks," or as part of safety and compliance measures. Anthropic hasn't said publicly which features are gated, or what user behavior might prompt a check. The company did not immediately respond to Decrypt's request for additional details.

On data handling, Anthropic draws a careful line: your ID and selfie go to Persona's servers, not Anthropic's own systems. The company says it is the data controller setting the terms, and that Persona can use the information to verify identity and improve fraud detection. The data is encrypted in transit and at rest, excluded from model training, and won't be shared with third parties for marketing, something Anthropic has been careful to promise since its earliest commercial policies.

Careful promises, though, have a history of meeting careless infrastructure. An October 2025 breach at Discord exposed roughly 70,000 government IDs users had submitted for age verification. Persona is a serious player in this space, but third-party custody of government documents has demonstrated repeatedly that no third party is immune.

Tighter identity controls also fit a pattern Anthropic has been building toward. In December, the company announced classifiers to detect users who self-identify as minors. Multiple adult users had their accounts suspended anyway, reporting that entire project histories were wiped while they tried to appeal incorrect flags.

Accounts registered from regions Anthropic doesn't formally serve are also subject to bans—a detail that lands hardest on Chinese users accessing Claude through intermediaries, since a live selfie matched against a physical government document is hard to fake your way through.