A security researcher has discovered Anthropic Code’s Claude Code artificial intelligence tool that quietly collects data about users’ time zones and proxy servers.
A security researcher using the pseudonym Thereallo has documented a hidden tracking mechanism in the Anthropic Claude Code programming assistant. The corresponding code was stored in the command line of the artificial intelligence system. The function recorded the user’s system time zone and the use of proxy servers. The purpose of the query was to determine whether users had contacted specific artificial intelligence labs in China. This discovery was first reported by IT magazine Ars Technica.
Intentions to combat abuse and auditioning of models
Anthropic developer Tariq Shihipa confirmed the opening on the platform. This process trains smaller AI models using the output of larger models. Anthropic has previously accused Chinese companies DeepSeek, Moonshot and MiniMax of using its models in this way for their own training. Additionally, Washington Post reports have shown that Chinese resellers are selling Claude Pro subscriptions, which typically cost $100 in the US, for about $12 in China. According to Shihipa, the code was already scheduled to be removed.
Hello! This is an experiment we launched in March to prevent account abuse by unauthorized resellers and protect it from being resold.
Since then, the team has achieved more significant mitigation measures, and we have been looking to reverse them for a long time. We have united…
— Tariq (@trq212) June 30, 2026
Criticism of the lack of transparency of systemic rights by Claude Code
The hidden data request has sparked debate among experts as Anthropic publicly positions itself as a transparent and ethical company. The code’s discoverer noted that programming assistants have deep access rights to local systems. These tools can view source code, execute commands, install software packages, and make changes on local computers. The researcher criticized the obfuscation of the monitoring method: “When a tool with filesystem and shell access starts hiding classification bits in invisible punctuation clues, the proper response is to check carefully.”
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