Alibaba bans Claude Code over Anthropic tracking code targeting Chinese users

According to South China Morning Post and Reuters, Alibaba Group issued a workplace ban on Anthropic's Claude Code effective July 10, 2026, citing backdoor and spyware risks. Alibaba's internal directive stated Claude Code was added to a high-risk software list after Anthropic embedded hidden code to track whether users were based in China or affiliated with Chinese AI labs, according to people familiar with the matter.