23andMe has agreed to pay a $30 million settlement fund to resolve the data breach class action settlement. People who were affected by the 2023 data breach can check everything about the settlement from below as they can expect compensation through the settlement soon.
23andMe Data Breach Settlement
The lawsuit was filed against 23andMe in San Francisco federal court in January 2024 alleging the defendant had failed to protect the customer’s personal information and did not notify the customers about their potential personal information lost due to the data reach.
The 23andMe company allows customers to submit their genetic materials and provides a DTC genetic testing service to generate reports on their ancestry and genetic health. According to the lawsuit, the company faced a data breach in April 2023, and the hackers accessed the customer account without authorization, which led to more than 6.9 million customers’ personal, ancestral, birth, and other information being exposed to third parties.
The company revealed in Oct 2023 that the hackers used credential stuffing techniques and gained login credentials from other websites for approximately 14,000 customers. The company did not notify the customers till December 2023. Now, to resolve the case the defendant has proposed to settle the class action lawsuit with $30 million.
The preliminary settlement proposal was filed for the 23andme Data breach settlement in the San Francisco Court on 07 November 2024. After the preliminary approval, the eligible customers may receive the settlement notice and the claim form deadline or further claiming process of the settlement.
Who will be eligible for the 23andme Data Breach Settlement?
The 23andMe data breach settlement will have the following requirements for the class members who can claim the settlement:
- As per the report, the 23andme settlement covers over 6.9 million customers whose personal information was leaked due to the data breach, so people who live in the US or have been in US residency on 11 August 2023 will be eligible.
- The reported affected users also have 5.5 million users of DNA Relative profiles that let customers share information among relatives with a feature called Family Tree, so people who have used the feature may qualify.
- The data breach commenced in April 2023 and lasted for 5 months, so people who were customers of 23andMe during this time or were affected by the data breach can file a claim.
The final eligibility conditions will clear once the settlement agreement is published and the court grants the preliminary approval for the administrator to begin the settlement process. The notice will define the class members who will be the part of 23andMe class action settlement, so keep an eye on the settlement.
23andme Data Breach Settlement Payout
According to the proposed 23andme data breach settlement, the compensation is categorized into three parts depending on the customers lost and inconvenience. The customers can expect the maximum settlement payout of up to $10,000 from the class action based on their claims. So, let’s what are the three types of compensation that class members can expect in the 23andMe data breach settlement:
- Customers who have lost health info in the data breach can claim the settlement and expect compensation of up to $100. According to reports, this category of compensation has limited funds to up to $75,000 for the claimants.
- Customers who faced loss due to the 23andME data breach, such as identity theft, monetary loss, or any other can file the claim in this category with the relevant document to prove their loss and receive compensation for their losses. This category of class members will receive the payout from the $ 5 million fund kept from the settlement fund.
- Cash benefit: People living in Alaska, Illinois, California, and Oregon will be entitled to general cash payments of up to $100 if they receive the breach notice from the defendants and prove their residency in any of the mentioned US states.
The total amount of payout per person may vary from person to person as it depends on the category of claim, no. of claimants, and the settlement fund available after deducting other expenses. The class members should know that after the final approval from the court, the settlement fund is first used to cover the cost of settlement administration in sending notice, attorney costs & fees, service awards for the class representative, and others.
After the above cost is deducted from the settlement fund, the net settlement fund will be used to distribute the compensation among the class members who have filed valid claims.
23andme Data Breach Settlement Other benefit
Apart from the monetary settlement benefit, all 23andMe affected customers will receive security monitoring services for three years that provide surveillance over potential security risks, identity theft, and other risks that involve data leaks.
The additional benefit will offer the Privacy shield to the users from such potential breach. The lawsuit stated the most targeted group of customers in the 23andMe data breach were Ashkenazi Jewish and Chinese customers who posted their information on the dark web. The three-year Privacy field will offer monitoring services to eligible and valid claimants.
How can you claim the 23andme Data Breach Settlement?
The class members who meet the conditions of the settlement can’t submit the claim form as the Court has yet to approve the final proposal but soon after the approval the 23andMe settlement administrator will launch the settlement website with the claim form and deadline to submit the claim.
The class members would be able to submit the claim form online or offline by mail at their convenience. The class members would need to submit the documents to support their claim with the form and other relevant information by the TBA deadline.
So, class members keep an eye on the 23andMe settlement proceedings to submit your claim, or stay tuned with us!