IMDEA study: Claude web sends user events to Meta, TikTok, LinkedIn via server-side trackers
ZoeyPanthera · reddit · 2026-10-07
A PoPETs 2027-accepted privacy study from IMDEA Networks analyzed nine AI chatbots and found Claude's web client sending chat IDs, chat links, user IDs and email addresses to third parties like Datadog and Intercom — partly even after rejecting non-essential cookies.
Key findings:
- After accepting all cookies, the web client loads Segment Analytics through a first-party domain (a-cdn.anthropic.com) and forwards user events server-to-server to eleven services, including Facebook, LinkedIn, TikTok, Reddit and Google Enhanced Conversions — invisible to ad blockers.
- Claude kept connecting to Google Ads even after cookie rejection; paying barely changes web behavior. One positive exception: the paid Android app skips Intercom and Sentry.
The paper does not show conversation content going to ad networks, and Claude is not the worst offender among the nine, but the author argues this clashes with Anthropic's privacy-focused branding, posing five questions about what "user events" contain, why chat links and emails go to third parties at all, and whether paid users can get a full opt-out.
More from Companies & People
- Applied Intuition partners with Honda to build software-defined vehicle platform — graceisford · 2026-10-07
- Chinese AI podcast "Next Token" records new episode with top KOLs — vista8 · 2026-10-07
- van der Schaar Lab opens fully funded ML PhD applications for 2027 start — MihaelaVDS · 2026-10-07
- Ads start appearing on paid Pro accounts, frustrating subscribers — zucchini_up_ur_ass · 2026-10-07
- Redditor passes three Claude certification exams and shares his full study playbook — Few-Association-913 · 2026-10-07
- Hummingbot Agent Hackathon Hits $500K+ Trading Volume Just 4 Hours In — cardosofede · 2026-10-07