Anthropic lays down identity verification on Claude

Anthropic is rolling out identity verification on Claude using Persona Identities, requiring government-issued photo ID and a live selfie for certain users. The verification targets four groups: usage policy violators, users in unsupported regions (e.g., China, Russia, Iran), terms of service violators, and under-18 users. Anthropic states it will not use verification data for model training, will not store images on its own systems, and will not share data with third parties. The move comes amid broader global trends around age restrictions on digital platforms, and notably differs from OpenAI and Google, which allow users aged 13 and older.