--- title: Claude Code sends your email address to websites | daily.dev description: A user reported that Claude Code was divulging their email address to third parties in the User-Agent header during web searches, without permission, and said... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/claude-code-sends-your-email-address-to-websites-3b2sde9lh twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: Claude Code sends your email address to websites | daily.dev og:description: A user reported that Claude Code was divulging their email address to third parties in the User-Agent header during web searches, without permission, and said... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/claude-code-sends-your-email-address-to-websites-3b2sde9lh og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/3b2sdE9lh.png og:image:alt: Claude Code sends your email address to websites og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Claude Code sends your email address to websites **[Hacker News](https://daily.dev/sources/hn)** · 2 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A user reported that Claude Code was divulging their email address to third parties in the User-Agent header during web searches, without permission, and said they were receiving dozens of scam emails per day. They demanded the behavior be removed entirely rather than made opt-in or opt-out, and said they were migrating to Pi with OpenRouter over the privacy concern. Anthropic responded that it introduced a built-in mod called 'cc-plugin-privacy' in version 2.1.317 and later to deterministically block this behavior. The mod is enabled by default and can be disabled via /plugins. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Why is Claude Code putting my email address in the User-Agent header during web searches? Claude Code was found to include user email addresses in the User-Agent request header when conducting web searches, exposing them to arbitrary third parties without permission. One user reported receiving dozens of scam emails per day as a result. Anthropic addressed this starting in version 2.1.317 with a built-in mod called 'cc-plugin-privacy' that deterministically blocks the behavior by default. _Anyone tracking privacy fixes in AI coding tools like Claude Code can follow updates like this on daily.dev._ ### How do I disable the cc-plugin-privacy mod in Claude Code? The cc-plugin-privacy mod, which blocks Claude Code from leaking personal data like email addresses in request headers, is enabled by default starting in version 2.1.317. It can be turned off through the /plugins command, though doing so would remove the protection against the User-Agent privacy leak it was built to fix. _Developers configuring Claude Code's privacy settings can keep track of changes like this via daily.dev._ ## Community take How the wider developer community reacted, aggregated from 1 discussion and 160 comments across hackernews (as of 2026-11-06). **TL;DR:** Developers reacted with alarm and frustration that Claude Code was embedding user emails into HTTP headers via git config and system prompt data, viewing the fix (an opt-out plugin rather than removing the data entirely) as inadequate; an Anthropic-affiliated commenter's casual tone in response drew further criticism. **Sentiment:** 5% positive · 20% mixed · 75% skeptical **The case for** - The quick official acknowledgment and patch (cc-plugin-privacy) in 2.1.317 was seen as a reasonably fast response once the issue surfaced. - Some pointed out certain sites legitimately require a contact email in the User-Agent per HTTP spec, so the behavior wasn't purely malicious. - A few users reported no actual spam increase despite using unique emails for months, suggesting the real-world leak impact may be overstated. **The pushback** - Many felt defaulting this to opt-out instead of removing it entirely shows a cavalier attitude toward user privacy. - The casual 'haha' response from the Anthropic-affiliated commenter was widely criticized as dismissive of a serious privacy violation. - Commenters argued the root problem (email baked into system prompt/context) wasn't actually fixed, just patched over with a blocking mod. - Several noted this same issue had been reported months earlier (GitHub issues since July/October) without being addressed. - Concerns were raised about GDPR implications and this being treated too lightly for PII exposure. - Some questioned why login/email data is even accessible to the agent's context in the first place, given git log and other sources already leak it. **By community** - hackernews (heated): Discussion split between pointed technical critique of root causes, outrage at the company's dismissive tone, and pushback from people defending the quick patch and questioning the original report's credibility. **Hottest debate:** Whether this is a serious, longstanding privacy failure needing a structural fix versus an overblown, unverified report given the patch already shipped and some users saw no resulting spam. **Open questions** - Why was the user's email ever injected into the system prompt/context to begin with, rather than keeping it isolated from tool-calling logic? - Can a more deterministic, permission-walled approach to outbound requests containing sensitive data be built rather than relying on an opt-out mod? - Is this actually causing the reported spam, or is that correlation coincidental given other common sources of email leakage (git logs, LinkedIn scraping, data broker databases)? **Highlights** > Hi folks. We were initially aware of this a few days ago when this problem started popping off on Reddit, and we introduced a built-in mod called `cc-plugin-privacy` to deterministically block this behavior. If you're on 2.1.317 or later, you'll have this check included. You can turn it off via /plugins. > — [mpoteat on hackernews · 13 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50386031) > Some sites like Wikipedia have a policy where scripted clients identify themselves, and there's a standard in HTTP to have a contact email in the User-Agent for such cases. Claude apparently tends to decide that this policy is worth following, and we now disallow this programmatically. This is why alignment is important and highly non-trivial haha > — [mpoteat on hackernews · 4 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50386185) > > This is why alignment is important and highly non-trivial haha FYI, it's generally bad form to "haha" your way through privacy violations. Leaking private information is a very big deal for a lot of people. > — [swatcoder on hackernews · 1 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50386226) > Claude code writes adds a `User-Agent` request header like `my-session-slug/1 ` when searching the web and requesting data. This violates the privacy of paying customers and has resulted in me getting dozens of scam and phishing emails per day from properties I have never personally visited. This policy is asinine: it does nothing but harm me, the customer, while providing immense value for scrapers and scammers. > — [motoroco on hackernews · 4 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50385273) > Who is "we"? Your website says you work for volley. Anthropic should have been aware of this since the user's login email address was inappropriately added to the system prompt. It's been informed of it by third parties since at least July: https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/81138 It makes no sense for an email address only used for authentication to be given to Claude Code, so the fix should be to remove it from the system prompt, not to add a plugin. > — [mkl on hackernews · 3 comments](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50386155) > It almost certainly does not explain it, and is probably just a coincidence. Claude Code is not sending your email address to websites as a default, or regularly. It is not some automatic header or anything. Rather, if you are performing certain kinds of research on sites that involves downloading certain kinds of information, like on Wikipedia or the SEC, it supplies your e-mail address when the sites request it as part of their download policy. As part of anti-bot policy. Wikipedia and the SEC are not selling your e-mail address to spammers. And these are the two main sites where it has come up. > — [crazygringo on hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50386848) **Source threads** - [hackernews](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50385272) · 404 points · 160 comments ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Alibaba bans Claude Code over hidden Chinese user tracking](https://daily.dev/posts/alibaba-bans-claude-code-over-hidden-chinese-user-tracking-r6jlbmyiv) · The Next Web · 1 upvotes · 1 comments - ['Claudy Day’ Trio of Flaws Exposes Claude Users to Data Theft](https://daily.dev/posts/claudy-day-trio-of-flaws-exposes-claude-users-to-data-theft-oxmixvsef) · Dark Reading · 8 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#security](https://daily.dev/tags/security), [#privacy](https://daily.dev/tags/privacy), [#ai-coding](https://daily.dev/tags/ai-coding), [#anthropic](https://daily.dev/tags/anthropic), [#claude-code](https://daily.dev/tags/claude-code) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/claude-code-sends-your-email-address-to-websites-3b2sde9lh) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"Claude Code sends your email address to websites","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/claude-code-sends-your-email-address-to-websites-3b2sde9lh","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/claude-code-sends-your-email-address-to-websites-3b2sde9lh"},"datePublished":"2026-11-05T23:18:38.794Z","dateModified":"2026-11-06T01:11:28.673Z","description":"A user reported that Claude Code was divulging their email address to third parties in the User-Agent header during web searches, without permission, and said...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/d60ee6e6c5c00a01f8aad0b7eaebf25d?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/d60ee6e6c5c00a01f8aad0b7eaebf25d?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"Hacker News","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Hacker News","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/hn","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/claude-code-sends-your-email-address-to-websites-3b2sde9lh","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"security,privacy,ai-coding,anthropic,claude-code","timeRequired":"PT2M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Hacker News","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/hn"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Claude Code sends your email address to websites"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/claude-code-sends-your-email-address-to-websites-3b2sde9lh#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Why is Claude Code putting my email address in the User-Agent header during web searches?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"Claude Code was found to include user email addresses in the User-Agent request header when conducting web searches, exposing them to arbitrary third parties without permission. One user reported receiving dozens of scam emails per day as a result. Anthropic addressed this starting in version 2.1.317 with a built-in mod called 'cc-plugin-privacy' that deterministically blocks the behavior by default. Anyone tracking privacy fixes in AI coding tools like Claude Code can follow updates like this on daily.dev."}},{"@type":"Question","name":"How do I disable the cc-plugin-privacy mod in Claude Code?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"The cc-plugin-privacy mod, which blocks Claude Code from leaking personal data like email addresses in request headers, is enabled by default starting in version 2.1.317. It can be turned off through the /plugins command, though doing so would remove the protection against the User-Agent privacy leak it was built to fix. Developers configuring Claude Code's privacy settings can keep track of changes like this via daily.dev."}}]} ```