- Alibaba will require employees to stop using Claude Code and has added it to a high-risk software list, an insider confirmed to Caixin on July 3, citing backdoor risks.
- Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is barring employees from using Anthropic’s artificial-intelligence tools starting July 10, citing security concerns after the U.S. startup acknowledged it had embedded hidden code to track certain users.
- Employees will be required to uninstall Anthropic models and agent products and switch to Alibaba’s in-house AI assistant, Qoder, the person said.
- The Chinese tech giant has listed Claude Code as ‘high-risk’ software, after discovering Anthropic had tracked Chinese users using hidden code.
- Alibaba Group Holding has banned its employees from using Anthropic’s Claude Code for work, citing security risks related to the US artificial intelligence firm’s previous use of hidden code to track Chinese users.
- The internal directive, which takes effect on July 10, requires employees to uninstall Anthropic products, including Claude Sonnet, Claude Opus, Claude Fable and the company's AI coding agent Claude Code.
- The company was referring to Anthropic’s earlier move to embed code in its Claude Code coding agent platform that could secretly track whether a user was based in China or affiliated with a Chinese AI lab.
- The restriction will take effect July 10 and comes amid escalating tensions between the two companies over artificial intelligence security and intellectual property.
- Since early this year, the company had actively encouraged employees to adopt AI tools by providing free quotas for its own models while reimbursing staff members for the use of third-party services.
- The dispute has also been fueled by allegations circulating among Chinese developers this week that Claude Code contained hidden mechanisms for identifying users linked to China.
- A Reddit user who said they had reverse-engineered the software alleged it used steganographic techniques to secretly mark Chinese users and transmit those identifiers back to Anthropic.
- Some researchers described the functionality as a potential backdoor, raising concerns among Chinese technology firms about data security and surveillance.
- The latest dispute deepens a growing rift between Anthropic and Alibaba.
Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. has implemented a ban on the use of Anthropic's Claude Code by its employees, effective July 10, due to serious security concerns. The decision follows the discovery of hidden tracking mechanisms embedded in the software, which could potentially identify users based in China.1245671013
An internal notice revealed that the company has classified Claude Code as high-risk software due to its vulnerabilities. Employees are required to uninstall all Anthropic products, including Claude Sonnet, Claude Opus, and Claude Fable, and transition to Alibaba's own AI assistant, Qoder.3
The ban comes amid escalating tensions between Alibaba and Anthropic, with allegations surfacing that Claude Code contained covert mechanisms to track Chinese users. Security researchers have claimed that the software employed steganographic techniques to subtly alter data formats and visually indistinguishable punctuation, marking users and sending identifiers back to Anthropic.11
This move marks a significant shift for Alibaba, which had previously encouraged the use of leading overseas AI products. The company had offered free quotas for its models and reimbursed staff for third-party services. However, the recent security concerns have prompted a reevaluation of this policy.
The controversy has intensified following allegations that Anthropic's software was used to conduct a large-scale campaign to extract capabilities from its Claude models, further complicating the relationship between the two companies.
“The restriction will take effect July 10 and comes amid escalating tensions between the two companies over artificial intelligence security and intellectual property,” a source confirmed.8
The internal directive reflects Alibaba's commitment to safeguarding its data security amid growing concerns over surveillance and data privacy in the tech industry.
“Alibaba has announced a ban on the use of Anthropic's Claude Code, citing security risks related to alleged spyware. The ban will take effect on July 10, marking a significant policy shift for the company.”
South China Morning Post
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