T-Mobile, a US carrier, has agreed to pay $500 million as part of a settlement of a class action lawsuit for a data breach that occurred in 2021. According to a court filing on Friday, customer information of "roughly 76.6 million U.S. persons recognised by T-Mobile" was compromised. Social Security numbers, names, addresses, and driver's licence information of the impacted consumers were among the customer data included in the breach, according to a report by Motherboard published in August 2021.
Customers and attorneys will split $350 million of the settlement money (to pay fees and legal costs). The amount distributed to particular clients will vary based on the sums paid to attorneys and the number of clients who opt to participate in the class action settlement.
To reduce the likelihood of another data breach, T-Mobile will be forced to invest the remaining $150 million in security upgrades from now through 2023. (the company has had five breaches involving customer data in the last four years).
The class action lawsuit charged T-Mobile with having "inadequate data security," failing to notify people who were impacted, and being unable to protect the information of its customers. T-Mobile did not admit guilt to any of these charges by settling the lawsuit.
