{"schema_version":"0.10.0","id":"LR-2026-0400","record_version":1,"title":"Claude Cowork deletes family photo folder during desktop organisation","verification":{"human_verified":false,"method":"automated_gate","auto_verified":true,"score":56.1,"score_breakdown":{"source_authority":12.1,"independent_corroboration":15.0,"implicated_party_confirmed":0.0,"citation_integrity":14.0,"specificity":3.0,"completeness":4.16,"unhedged_language":5.0},"checks":{"schema_valid":true,"every_field_cited":true,"quotes_verbatim":true,"source_fetched":true,"distinct_incident":true,"dates_plausible":true,"sources_agree":true,"source_describes_incident":true,"severe_backed_by_source":true,"record_integrity":true,"eligible":true,"about_this_case":true},"gate_version":"gate-2026-10-18.7","cross_check_model":null,"cross_check_agreement":null,"duplicate_of":null,"verified_by":null,"verified_at":"2026-11-01","extraction_run_id":null,"evidence_level":{"level":"preliminary","reason":"Publisher not yet named · subject to change","original_document":null,"reports_total":2,"reports_independent":0,"reports_derivative":0,"developing":false,"disputed":false,"rules_version":"evidence-2026-10-29.1","computed_at":"2026-11-01","history":[{"date":"2026-11-01","from_level":null,"to_level":"preliminary","reason":"Publisher not yet named · subject to change"}]},"sources_hash":"ac356d8b6f17d593a7db7137e99fb169116f3c33ce5531ae7f5b4d1ecb6d8ca4"},"system":{"model_name":null,"model_version":null,"developer":"Anthropic","harness":"Claude Cowork","tools_granted":[],"permissions_scope":"direct access to a personal computer","autonomy_level":"unknown","guardrails_present":[],"deployment_context":"unknown","tier":null,"lifecycle_stage":null,"integration_type":null,"intended_use":null,"safeguard_state":null,"production_intended":null},"event":{"date_occurred":null,"date_disclosed":"2026-02-08","incident_class":"operational_error","failure_class":null,"agent_involved":true,"secondary_failure_classes":[],"trigger":"unknown","duration":null,"detection_method":"victim","summary":"A venture capitalist asked Anthropic’s Claude Cowork desktop agent to organise his wife’s computer. The agent asked permission to delete some temporary office files, and he agreed. Instead, the agent deleted a folder holding 15 years of family photographs. The folder was not in the Trash, the photos were not backed up to Time Machine, and iCloud had already synced the changed file structure, so standard recovery tools could not find them. He contacted Apple, which pointed him to an iCloud feature for retrieving recently deleted files, and the folder was recovered.","tags":[],"date_detected":null,"near_miss":null,"root_cause":null,"root_cause_detail":null,"failure_class_detail":null,"responsible_party":null,"adversarial_actor":null,"input_provenance":null,"time_to_contain":null,"operations_paused":null,"remediation":null,"precursor_events":null,"primary_risk":"RK02"},"impact":{"direct_loss_usd":null,"remediation_hours":null,"records_exposed":null,"third_parties_affected_count":null,"severity":"minor","severity_because":"minor: contained to one deployer's desktop and the sources describe no third party touched","harm_class":[],"affected_description":"one family's folder of 15 years of photographs","protected_class_involved":null,"data_categories_exposed":[],"loss_range_usd":null,"reversibility":null,"downstream_exposure_count":null},"evidence":{"sources":[{"url":"https://www.hindustantimes.com/trending/claude-ai-deletes-15-years-of-family-memories-nearly-gave-me-a-heart-attack-says-vc-101770534088139.html","publisher":"Hindustan Times","date":"2026-02-08","type":"press","title":"Claude AI deletes 15 years of family memories — ‘Nearly gave me a heart attack,’ says VC | Trending - Hindustan Times","archived_url":null,"attachment":"first_report"},{"url":"https://m.economictimes.com/news/new-updates/venture-capitalist-nearly-had-a-heart-attack-after-he-asked-ai-agent-claude-cowork-to-organise-his-wifes-desktop-its-next-step-was-unbelievable/articleshow/128104917.cms","publisher":"The Economic Times","date":"2026-02-09","type":"press","title":"He told AI to organise his wife's desktop. Minutes later, this renowned venture capitalist 'nearly had a h - The Economic Times","archived_url":null}],"per_field_confidence":{"system.harness":"C","system.developer":"C","system.permissions_scope":"C","event.agent_involved":"C","event.detection_method":"C","impact.affected_description":"C","event.incident_class":"D","impact.severity":"D","impact.severity_because":"D","event.primary_risk":"D","event.summary":"C","system.autonomy_level":"D","system.deployment_context":"D","event.trigger":"D","context.country":"D","event.date_disclosed":"D","context.denominator_available":"D"},"field_citations":{"system.harness":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"A Bay Area venture capitalist says that Anthropic’s Claude Cowork deleted 15 years worth of memories from his wife’s computer."}],"system.developer":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Nick Davidov said in an X post that Anthropic’s desktop agent was tasked with organising his wife’s desktop."}],"system.permissions_scope":[{"source_index":1,"quote":"He concluded his post with a blunt warning to others experimenting with AI agents that have direct access to personal computers."}],"event.agent_involved":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Nick Davidov said in an X post that Anthropic’s desktop agent was tasked with organising his wife’s desktop."}],"event.detection_method":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Turns out it tried renaming and accidentally deleted a folder with all of the photos my wife made on her camera for the last 15 years."}],"impact.affected_description":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Turns out it tried renaming and accidentally deleted a folder with all of the photos my wife made on her camera for the last 15 years."}],"event.incident_class":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Instead of deleting the temporary files, the AI agent deleted a folder with 15 years of photos in it."}],"impact.severity":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Turns out it tried renaming and accidentally deleted a folder with all of the photos my wife made on her camera for the last 15 years."}],"impact.severity_because":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Turns out it tried renaming and accidentally deleted a folder with all of the photos my wife made on her camera for the last 15 years."}],"event.summary":[{"source_index":0,"quote":"Davidov said that he asked Claude Cowork to organise his wife’s desktop."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"The AI tool asked for permission to delete some temporary office files, which Davidov gave."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Instead of deleting the temporary files, the AI agent deleted a folder with 15 years of photos in it."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"The photos weren’t backed up to Time Machine, and iCloud had already synced the new (broken) file structure, Davidov explained."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"For one thing, the folder wasn’t in the Trash."},{"source_index":0,"quote":"I called Apple and they pointed me to a feature in iCloud allowing to retrieve files that were saved before but are no longer on iCloud Drive (they keep them for 30 days)"},{"source_index":0,"quote":"Finally, the San Francisco-based founder and VC reached out to Apple for help, and managed to recover the deleted folder."}]},"notes_on_gaps":"Sources are press reports only (Hindustan Times and Economic Times) quoting the user’s X post; no vendor, Apple or government statement is included. The date of occurrence and the date of disclosure are not stated, so no event dates are given; the article dates are not used as event dates. Model name, model version, autonomy level, deployment context, lifecycle stage, trigger, root cause and responsible party are not stated and are left out. No remediation by Anthropic is reported. Judgements made: failure_class silent_wrong_state, since the agent acted outside the approved action; severity minor, since the loss was contained to one family’s desktop and no third party was described as affected; reversibility reversible, based on the reported recovery; B1 failed, since the approval given did not cover the folder actually deleted. Economic Times describes the approved files as temporary Microsoft Office files and the loss as more than a decade; Hindustan Times gives 15 years, which is used here. Recovery was a user-side action with Apple support, not a vendor fix. [case created by the backfill: read by claude-haiku-5-5, backfill-2026-11-01.2, 2026-11-01; not yet reviewed] [2026-11-01: evidence level set: Preliminary (Publisher not yet named · subject to change)]"},"context":{"industry":null,"org_size_band":null,"country":"unknown","denominator_available":false,"denominator":null,"related_incident_ids":[],"systemic_exposure":null,"shared_model_id":null,"upstream_incident_id":null,"incident_evidence":null,"regulatory":null,"coverage":null},"narrative":{"steps":[{"step":"doing","text":"The user asked the agent to organise his wife’s desktop.","quote":"Davidov said that he asked Claude Cowork to organise his wife’s desktop.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"},{"step":"went_wrong","text":"The agent deleted a folder of 15 years of photos instead of the temporary files it had been permitted to remove.","quote":"Instead of deleting the temporary files, the AI agent deleted a folder with 15 years of photos in it.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"},{"step":"reached","text":"The deleted folder held all of the photos made on the camera over 15 years.","quote":"Turns out it tried renaming and accidentally deleted a folder with all of the photos my wife made on her camera for the last 15 years.","source_index":0,"grade":"C"}],"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"backfill-2026-11-01.2","extracted_at":"2026-11-01","source_urls":["https://www.hindustantimes.com/trending/claude-ai-deletes-15-years-of-family-memories-nearly-gave-me-a-heart-attack-says-vc-101770534088139.html","https://m.economictimes.com/news/new-updates/venture-capitalist-nearly-had-a-heart-attack-after-he-asked-ai-agent-claude-cowork-to-organise-his-wifes-desktop-its-next-step-was-unbelievable/articleshow/128104917.cms"]},"analysis":{"sections":{"timeline":[{"text":"The user asked the agent to organise his wife’s desktop.","quote":"Davidov said that he asked Claude Cowork to organise his wife’s desktop.","source_index":0,"when":null},{"text":"The agent asked permission to delete temporary office files and the user granted it.","quote":"The AI tool asked for permission to delete some temporary office files, which Davidov gave.","source_index":0,"when":null},{"text":"The agent deleted a folder with 15 years of photos instead.","quote":"Instead of deleting the temporary files, the AI agent deleted a folder with 15 years of photos in it.","source_index":0,"when":null},{"text":"Time Machine had no copy and iCloud had already synced the changed file structure.","quote":"The photos weren’t backed up to Time Machine, and iCloud had already synced the new (broken) file structure, Davidov explained.","source_index":0,"when":null},{"text":"The deleted folder was recovered.","quote":"Finally, the San Francisco-based founder and VC reached out to Apple for help, and managed to recover the deleted folder.","source_index":0,"when":null},{"text":"The user wrote the public post while the recovery of tens of thousands of files was under way.","quote":"Davidov said he wrote the post while watching the recovery of tens of thousands of files.","source_index":0,"when":null}]},"model":"claude-haiku-5-5","prompt_version":"backfill-2026-11-01.2","extracted_at":"2026-11-01","source_urls":["https://www.hindustantimes.com/trending/claude-ai-deletes-15-years-of-family-memories-nearly-gave-me-a-heart-attack-says-vc-101770534088139.html","https://m.economictimes.com/news/new-updates/venture-capitalist-nearly-had-a-heart-attack-after-he-asked-ai-agent-claude-cowork-to-organise-his-wifes-desktop-its-next-step-was-unbelievable/articleshow/128104917.cms"]}}