Alibaba bans employees from using Anthropic’s Claude Code over security concerns
Alibaba has prohibited employees from using Anthropic’s Claude Code, citing security risks and directing staff to use an internal alternative instead.
1. Implementation of the Ban
Starting July 10, 2026, Alibaba will prohibit its employees from using Claude Code, a programming tool developed by Anthropic. The company has officially classified the software as high-risk. In response to this restriction, Alibaba is directing its staff to utilize the company’s internal alternative, a tool known as Qoder.
2. Context of Security Concerns
The decision follows reports regarding a version of Claude Code that could identify Chinese users. While some users speculated that this functionality acted as spyware, Anthropic’s Thariq Shihipar clarified that the feature was part of an experiment launched in March 2026. According to Shihipar, the intent was to prevent account abuse by unauthorized resellers and to protect against model distillation, a process where AI models are trained on the outputs of other models. Anthropic stated that it has since implemented stronger security mitigations and had intended to remove the experimental feature.
3. Broader Access Restrictions
Anthropic maintains a policy that prohibits Chinese companies and foreign entities owned by them from accessing its models. The company has been actively working to close technical loopholes that have allowed users in China to bypass these restrictions. This ongoing effort to restrict access, combined with the identification of the experimental tracking feature, has contributed to the security concerns leading to Alibaba's internal ban.