In 2016, Yahoo announced 4 data breaches that compromised 3 billion(!) accounts, including names, emails, and passwords. The legal fallout of that breach has now finally come to fruition, in the form of a $117.5 million class action lawsuit settlement.
Those familiar with the Equifax Class Action settlement will notice some similarities to this new Yahoo class action settlement. It is equally as appealing, so don’t get your hopes up too much on the payout. ;-)
Let’s walk through the details, so that you can cash in on however much (or little) the Yahoo settlement payout will be.
Who is Eligible to Make a Claim in the Yahoo Settlement?
- You had a Yahoo account between January 1, 2012 and December 31, 2016, or
- You were sent a notice concerning the Data Breaches announced in 2016 and/or 2017.
What are the Claim Options:
When you file your claim here, first, you can choose between the following 2 options:
- Credit Monitoring Services for a minimum of two years, starting from when you activate the services.
- Alternative of a payment of $100 (which may be lower, if more people than expected file a claim, or higher – up to $358.80 – if fewer people file a claim.
I am personally claiming the $100 cash payment here, since I have free credit monitoring through Credit Karma (see my Credit Karma review for more info) and Credit Sesame (see my Credit Sesame review for more info), and I can also access free credit reports from both. I wrote extensively about how to protect yourself in light of hacks like these – all of which is still relevant today. And since then, Congressional legislation has made credit freezes (and thaws) free to all consumers, as a result of public outrage. So you should not need the monitoring services being offered.
In addition to the options above, you can also submit a claim for:
- monetary claims for damage done (you must document), up to $25,000.
- monetary claims for time spent related to one or more of the data breaches. You may be compensated at $25 per hour or unpaid time off work at your actual hourly rate, whichever is greater, for up to 15 hours, for documented claims. If you cannot provide documentation, you may be compensated at $25 per hour or unpaid time off work at your actual hourly rate, whichever is greater, for up to 5 hours.
For the record, I submitted for the alternative payment of $100, plus 5 undocumented hours ($125).
What is the Deadline to File a Claim?
The final approval of the settlement is scheduled for April 2, 2020. The deadline to submit your claim is July 20, 2020.
Is it Worth it?
Yes. While you may not make a fortune from these, to let these companies get off, without penalty, for their compromising security practices is a bad omen.
And I’m not promising anything, but I think that the Yahoo class action settlement could pay out a higher average amount than people may expect, for 2 reasons:
- People hate credit companies like Equifax and the response was overwhelming. Hatred for Yahoo? Not so much.
- People were very disappointed in what they found out about the Equifax settlement payout, in terms of it being so underfunded, and have likely soured a bit on class action claims.
We shall see. Just don’t hold your breath.
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