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Z.ai apologizes after coding tool uploads user files without consent

Z.ai, a Chinese AI company, said its coding assistant ZCode uploaded developers’ local files to external servers without user consent. The incident came to light when a technical blogger found work data from his project sent to Alibaba Cloud, some successfully. Z.ai apologized on Friday, applied a software fix, and plans to open-source ZCode’s code for external review. The company claims all uploaded data was destroyed.

Why it mattersUnauthorized data uploads damage trust around AI software and highlight security risks for developers who may store sensitive code or data locally. The incident puts added scrutiny on how rapidly deployed AI tools handle user privacy.

Sources covering this

South China Morning PostChinese AI firm Z.ai faces reputation hit after users spot unauthorised uploads1:00 PMTom's HardwareDevs say Chinese AI company silently uploaded hundreds of megabytes of local workspace data, company apologizes — Z.AI, the firm behind the GLM models, didn’t ask for user consent and made 564 attempts to exfiltrate 313MB archive11:59 AM
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