Those who wish to opt out or object to the settlement must do so by Nov. 17, ahead of the final approval hearing in January 2026.
Consumers are entitled to some cash stemming from AT&T’s data breach settlement.
Impacted consumers have a little over a month to claim their money.
What they’re saying:
“We have agreed to this settlement to avoid the expense and uncertainty of protracted litigation,” AT&T said in a Thursday statement, adding that the company remains “committed to protecting our customers’ data and ensuring their continued trust in us.”
Consumers impacted by the data breaches have until Dec. 18 to file for a settlement payment.
To learn more, you can visit the website of the settlement administrator, Kroll Settlement Administration. Class members can also opt-out or make an objection before Nov. 17.
Head over to the settlement administrator’s website and click on the “submit claim” button that should be on the right side of the screen.
Dig deeper:
The settlement’s cash funds total $177 million to pay those impacted by both of these breaches — which divvies up to $149 million for the first “settlement class” and another $28 million for the second, per a preliminary approval order filed in June.
According to the settlement administrator’s website, consumers impacted by the first breach may be eligible for up to $5,000.
And those affected by the second breach may be eligible for up to $2,500. It’s also possible to be an “overlap settlement class member,” which would mean you may be eligible for payments from both of these funds.
Final payment amounts will vary depending on losses documented from each person — as well as the total number of claims received and added costs like attorney fees. And the court still has to give the settlement its final stamp of approval, in a hearing currently scheduled for Jan. 15, 2026.
The backstory:
One of the incidents resulted in the illegal downloading of about 109 million customer accounts at the U.S. wireless company. AT&T disclosed its call logs were copied from its workspace on a Snowflake cloud platform covering about six months of customer call and text data from 2022 from nearly all of its customers.
In March 2024, AT&T said it was investigating a data set released on the “dark web” and said its preliminary analysis showed it affected approximately 7.6 million current account holders and 65.4 million former account holders. The company said the data set appeared to be from 2019 or earlier.
