Key facts
- Z.AI open-sourced its ZCode programming framework on Monday.
- ZCode was found to be silently uploading entire user workspaces to Alibaba Cloud without consent.
- The uploaded data included full version histories and large file caches.
- The data could only be decrypted by Z.AI.
- The controversy erupted on September 18.
Chinese AI company Z.AI open-sourced its programming framework ZCode on Monday after facing intense developer backlash over the software silently uploading users’ private code. The controversy erupted on September 18 when an engineer revealed that ZCode secretly encrypted and uploaded entire user workspaces to Alibaba Cloud without consent. The uploaded data included full version histories and large file caches, which could only be decrypted by Z.AI. The incident sparked widespread concern within the developer community and underscores the growing data privacy challenges and trust issues AI companies face as they rush to deploy new tools.