Yahoo has agreed to pay $50 million in damages for 200 million people in the US and Israel who had their personal data breached, according to the Associated Press. The company also has to provide users with credit monitoring services for two years. California federal court still has to approve the settlement before the payments can be granted.
In 2013, Yahoo suffered a data breach that affected all three billion user accounts. The next year, it suffered a smaller breach that affected 50 million users. Personal information including names, birthdays, email addresses, encrypted passwords, and even in some cases, security questions and answers were exposed in the breach. Although Yahoo first revealed the two data breaches in 2016, it’s taken two years for a class action lawsuit against Yahoo to reach a settlement.
The $50 million number translates into $25 per hour each account holder spent dealing with the consequences of the breach. The settlement puts the estimate at 15 hours for those suffered losses like identity theft and just five hours for others. Depending on whether you can document your losses or not, you can claim up to $375 or just $125. If you had a premium Yahoo email account, you can get a 25 percent refund on the subscription.
Since Yahoo’s internet services were bought by Verizon last year, Verizon will now have to pay half of the settlement. The other half will be taken care of by Altaba Inc., what remained of Yahoo after its deal with Verizon was completed.
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