T-Mobile Announces $350M Settlement Over Data Breach - Plus $150M Security Upgrade

76.6 million Americans were affected by last year's T-Mobile data breach, TechCrunch reports - and now in compensation they may have a few bucks coming their way. T-mobile has announced a settlement of $550 million for affected customers (and the various attorneys bringing the consolidated class action lawsuits) - plus another $150 million "for data security and related technology."For now, the class defined by the settlement document is "the approximately 76.6 million U.S. residents identified by T-Mobile whose information was compromised in the Data Breach," with a little extra legalese for Californians, where class actions are handled slightly differently. As is common in these giant lawsuits, lawyers take a huge bite and then the company must alert the class members they're owed money, so you can expect a postcard if you were a T-Mobile customer in August of 2021 (in the interest of full disclosure, I was). Then the money gets split up, depending on how many people respond and how much the lawyers take. The final settlement terms could be approved as early as December. Chances are you won't even be able to cover a single monthly mobile bill with what you get, but these days a $9 check might be the difference between "dinner" and "no dinner" for quite a few people, so let's not mock these small sums - except that it's kind of insulting to have five serious breaches in as many years and all customers get is enough to order off the value menu.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.