Anthropic quickly removed a hidden tracker from its Claude Code tool after security researcher “Thereallo” exposed its use of prompt steganography to secretly monitor users in China. The tracker sent data including timezone, proxy information, and potential connections to Chinese AI labs that Anthropic has accused of distillation attacks.
Anthropic engineer Thariq Shihipar confirmed the tracker was an experiment in March to prevent account abuse from unauthorized resellers and protect against distillation. The move sparked criticism as a serious breach of user trust, contradicting the company’s previous anti-surveillance stance.
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