Is Claude Code Safe?

This is the right question to ask. You're considering giving an AI tool access to your business data — customer records, financial information, internal documents. Before you do, you should know exactly how it works, what it can see, and what controls you have.

What Claude Code can see

Claude Code only accesses what your technical team explicitly allows. It doesn't have blanket access to your company's systems. Specifically:

  • Files and folders — It reads the specific files it's pointed at. Your technical team controls which directories and data sources are accessible.
  • Connected systems — If you want Claude Code to access your CRM, knowledge base, or project tools, your team sets up specific connections. It can't wander into systems on its own.
  • Nothing else — It doesn't access your email, your browser history, or anything outside what's been configured.

What happens to your data

When Claude Code works on a task, it sends the relevant data to Anthropic's servers for processing. Important facts:

  • Anthropic does not train on your data — Your business information is not used to improve their models. This is in their terms of service.
  • Data is processed and discarded — After the task is complete, the data isn't stored on Anthropic's servers (subject to their data retention policy).
  • Encryption in transit — Data is encrypted when being sent to and from Anthropic's servers, the same way your online banking works.

If you need data to stay on your own servers

For businesses with strict data requirements — regulated industries, government, finance — there are options to keep data within your own infrastructure. Your technical team can configure Claude Code to use private cloud providers (like Google Cloud or AWS) where your data never leaves your organisation's environment.

What controls you have

Permission levels

Your technical team sets up permission levels that control what Claude Code can do:

  • Read-only access — Claude Code can read information and generate drafts, but can't change or delete anything
  • Supervised mode — Claude Code proposes actions and waits for a human to approve each one before proceeding
  • Restricted access — Certain files, folders, or systems are completely off-limits, no matter what

Approval workflows

For sensitive actions, your team can require human approval. Claude Code does the work, then waits for someone to review and approve before anything happens. Nothing goes out the door without a human saying yes.

Audit trail

Every action Claude Code takes is logged. Your technical team can review exactly what it read, what it created, and what it changed. If you're ever asked "what did the AI do?", there's a complete record.

Common concerns

"Could it leak our customer data?"

Claude Code doesn't send your data anywhere except Anthropic's processing servers (or your own, if configured that way). It doesn't post to the internet, email anyone, or share information between different companies' sessions. Each session is isolated.

"Could it make changes we don't want?"

Only if your technical team gives it write access — and even then, you can require approval for every change. Most business use cases (meeting prep, report drafting, support replies) only need read access.

"What if it makes a mistake?"

It will, sometimes. That's why every output goes through human review. Claude Code generates drafts and recommendations — people make the decisions. The audit trail means you can always trace back to understand what happened.

"Is it compliant with GDPR / our industry regulations?"

This depends on your specific regulatory requirements. Review Anthropic's data processing agreement and discuss with your compliance team. For highly regulated industries, the private cloud options (Vertex AI, AWS Bedrock) provide stronger data residency guarantees.

The bottom line

Claude Code is as safe as your team configures it to be. With read-only access, supervised mode, and proper audit logging, it's no riskier than giving a new employee access to your systems — and it comes with better logging than most employees get.

Start with the most restrictive settings and loosen them as your team builds confidence. Your technical team should review the Guardrails guide for the full implementation details.