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Alibaba bans staff from using Claude Code over Anthropic spyware concerns

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…

By Samantha Johnson / July 3, 2026

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 – a move that has sparked widespread backlash in recent days.

“As Claude Code was recently discovered to carry back-door risks, after comprehensive evaluation, Claude Code has now been added to a list of high-risk software with security vulnerabilities,” Alibaba said on Thursday in an internal notice seen by the South China Morning Post.

The Chinese technology giant said all staff members would be prohibited from using Claude Code in the office starting from July 10.

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, according to people familiar with the matter.

Alibaba, the owner of the SCMP, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Anthropic’s covert practice was discovered earlier this week by security researchers, who posted their findings on platforms including Reddit and GitHub.

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