Identity verification on Claude

What happened

Anthropic published a support article announcing that Claude users will be required to verify their identity via Persona — a government-issued ID plus a selfie. The company claims verified data will not be used for model training.

Context and impact

The change lands after months of regulatory pressure, the Fable 5/Mythos 5 export curbs, and against the backdrop of Anthropic's IPO prep. The community response is sharply split — the HN thread reached 618 points within hours alongside a wave of critical posts like 'There is minimal downside to switching to open models'. Some users report a chilling effect and immediate migration toward open-weight models (Apertus, GLM-5.2, Qwen).

Details

• KYC partner: Persona
• Government-issued ID plus selfie required
• Anthropic states verification data is not used for training
• 618 points and hundreds of critical comments on HN within hours
• Companion post on marble.onl arguing zero switching cost to open models
• Fits a broader compliance push ahead of Anthropic's planned IPO