Free Settlement Money From AT&T: Who Qualifies and When You Can File Your Claim
While admitting no wrongdoing, the telecom giant agreed to pay out $177 million customers new and old that were impacted by two recent data breaches.
AT&T/CNET
If you've been an AT&T customer sometime in the last few years, you might be aware of a few recent data breaches that impacted your personal info. While that's unfortunate, I do have some good news for you: You might qualify for free money as part of a settlement the company is working towards.
On Friday, June 20, US District Judge Ada Brown in Texas ruled that the terms of a settlement from AT&T were reasonable, clearing the process to move forward. The settlement as it stands will see the telecom giant pay out $177 million to customers adversely affected by at least one of the two data breaches. Some details about the process for getting paid aren't available this early on, but you can expect them to become clear later in the summer, ahead of the final approval hearing on Dec. 3.
The settlement will prioritize larger payments to customers who suffered damages that are "fairly traceable" to the data leaks. It will also provide bigger payments to those impacted by the larger of the two leaks, which began in 2019. While the company is working towards a settlement, it has continued to deny that it was "responsible for these criminal acts."
For all the details about we have about the settlement right now, keep reading, and for more info about other recent settlements, find out how to claim Apple's Siri privacy settlement and see if you're eligible for 23andMe's privacy breach settlement.
What happened with these AT&T data breaches?
AT&T first confirmed the two data breaches last year, announcing an investigation into the first in March before confirming it in May, followed by confirmation of the second one in July.
The first of the confirmed breaches began in 2019. The company revealed that around 7.6 million current and 65.4 million former account holders had their data exposed to hackers, including names, Social Security numbers and dates of birth. The company first began investigating the situation last year after it reported that customer data had appeared on the dark web.
The second breach began in April of 2024, when a hacker broke into AT&T cloud storage provider Snowflake and accessed 2022 call and text records for almost all of the company's US customers, around 109 million in all. The company stressed that no names were attached to the stolen data, and two individuals were arrested in connection with the breach.
Both of these incidents sparked a wave of class action lawsuits alleging corporate neglect on the part of AT&T in failing to sufficiently protect its customers.
How will I know if I'm eligible for the AT&T data breach settlement?
As of now, we know that the settlement will pay out to any current or former AT&T customer whose data was accessed in one of these data breaches, with higher payments reserved for those who can provide documented proof that they suffered damages directly resulting from their data being stolen.
If you're eligible, you should receive a notice about it, either by email or by a physical letter in the mail, sometime in the coming months. The company expects that the claims process will begin on Aug. 4.
How much will I get paid from the AT&T data breach settlement?
You'll have to "reasonably" prove damages caused by these data breaches to be eligible for the highest and most prioritized payouts. For the 2019 breach, those claimants can receive up to $5,000. For the Snowflake breach, the max payout will be $2,500. It's not clear at this time how the company might be handling customers who've been affected by both breaches.
AT&T will focus on making those payments first, and whatever's left of the $177 million settlement total will be disbursed to anyone whose data was accessed, even without proof of damages. Since these payouts depend on how many people get the higher amounts first, we can't say definitively how much they will be.
When will I get paid from the AT&T data breach settlement?
AT&T expects that payments will start to go out sometime early next year, though exact dates aren't available right now. The final approval needs to be given at the Dec. 3 court hearing in order for payments to being made.
Stay tuned to this piece in the coming months to get all the new details as they emerge, and for more money help, check out CNET's daily tariff price impact tracker.
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