T-Mobile will pay around $350 million to its 77 million customer affected due to last years data breach
The settlement in a consolidated class action lawsuit has just been revealed by the company, and it’s pricey: $350 million to be divided among consumers (and attorneys), plus $150 million “for data security and related technology.” All businesses should learn from this: You don’t need to spend $150 million to get ready if you stay prepared!
After the hack, which allegedly happened at the beginning of last year, collections of T-Mobile customer data were offered for sale on several dark web marketplaces. According to T-Mobile, less than a million accounts and PINs were entirely exposed, which is still not good, and between 40 and 100 million subscribers had some of their data stolen overall.
The settlement doesn’t appear to contain different conditions for persons who were affected differently by the incident, but that might have been handled independently for all we know. The terms are stated in an SEC filing and court filing (PDF), which were originally reported by Geekwire. The settlement agreement’s current definition of the class is “the approximately 76.6 million U.S. residents identified by T-Mobile whose information was compromised in the Data Breach,” with a little more legalese for Californians as class actions there are handled a little differently.
You should anticipate receiving a postcard if you were a T-Mobile user in August of 2021 because, as is typical in these massive lawsuits, lawyers take a significant bite and then the corporation must notify the class members they have entitled money (in the interest of full disclosure, I was). Depending on how many people reply and how much the lawyers charge, the money is then divided. As early as December, the final settlement terms might be agreed.
You probably won’t even be able to cover a single monthly mobile bill with what you get, but in today’s society, a $9 check could mean the difference between “dinner” and “no dinner” for many people, so let’s not laugh at these small amounts. However, it is insulting that after five serious breaches in as many years, all customers receive is enough to order from the value menu.
The organisation, which merged with Sprint just before the incident, stated in its SEC filing that it will be investing $150 million in enhancing its security, suggesting that it may now be taking the situation seriously. Guess we’ll learn soon enough.
