Anthropic’s coding tool Claude Code had a secret feature that flagged Chinese users, sparking outrage on social media. The feature, which was introduced in version 2.1.91, used steganography to transmit user data without their knowledge. This has raised concerns about user trust and potential abuse. The company claims it was an experiment to prevent account abuse, but the feature has been rolled back. Why it matters: this incident highlights the need for transparency in AI development and the potential risks of covert surveillance features in AI tools.