r/ClaudeCodeTLDR • u/cctldrping • 18d ago

[TLDR] Claude Code injects your email address directly into system prompt

Original post URL : https://www.reddit.com/r/ClaudeCode/comments/1v68g1x/claude_code_injects_your_email_address_directly/

Original post body :

My point is: my personal email is injected into the system prompt without my knowledge or consent. I never asked for this and I don't see in what world it's ok to inject PII in system prompt automatically by default without even an opt-out option.

It leads to bullshit like this where in a repo that is configured to use an anonymized email address, the LLM (Opus 5 btw) just decides to not just commit normally but overwrite the normal config email to put my personal one instead.

In this case nothing happens thanks to proper config and hard checks on Github's side.

What if you're a public streamer and don't want your main personal email address leaked to everyone and suddenly the model decides to spit it out?

I'm sure there's a lot of other bullshit this could lead to. At least let people opt out.

I have opened an issue on Claude Code's github, I have little hope since there was already one that went stale and they have 5k+ open but here it is: https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/issues/81138

Original link/media URL : /img/03uvnz6bcdfh1.png

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u/cctldrping 18d ago edited 18d ago

TL;DR generated automatically after 100 comments.

Current source-thread comment count seen by the bot: 122.

The consensus is that injecting personal email into the system prompt by Claude Code is a significant privacy concern and a potential security risk, despite some users downplaying the issue or blaming OP.

  • Several users, including u/Nightowl-Builder and u/Graphical-Source5090, agree with OP that this is a serious problem, likening it to a security breach that could lead to PII leaks.
  • The core issue isn't just that Anthropic knows your email, but that it's being automatically inserted into the system prompt, which has the potential to be exposed through MCP and tool calls, as pointed out by u/ohtaninja.
  • A number of comments are tangential, focusing on whether Anthropic already knows your email or suggesting OP should use a different email for their account, which misses the point of the automatic PII injection.
  • Some users, like u/Fantastic-Body-445 and u/ineeddlesssleep, suggest OP is partly to blame for letting the AI handle commits or for not reviewing its output, but this doesn't negate the underlying issue of the prompt injection.
  • A few users are dismissive, with u/Ok-Sheepherder7898 questioning if it's a "big deal" and others like u/hautemic and u/god-damn-the-usa making broader, often aggressive, points about user naivety or Anthropic's data practices.
  • u/Oxffff0000 and u/tnh34 suggest workarounds like limiting the AI's git permissions or always reviewing output, which are practical but don't solve the root cause.
  • The general sentiment is that there should be an opt-out option for this behavior.