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Yahoo hit with $50m in damages, affected users able to claim $25/hour for lost time

It’s been a tough road for Yahoo over the last five years with multiple security breaches that have included 3 billion users. Now, the Verizon owned company is looking at paying out $50 million in damages along with offering affected users free credit monitoring.

As reported by NBC, this settlement still needs to be approved by a federal court, but it would include 1 billion of the 3 billion accounts hacked owned by 200 million Yahoo users in the US and Israel. This settlement just appears to make amends to specific breaches from 2013-2014 which weren’t reported by Yahoo until 2016.

If the deal goes through, affected users will be able to submit claims to get their share of the $50m settlement. Users will be compensated at $25/hour for lost time with a maximum compensation of $375.  Alternatively, users who might have trouble nailing down lost time related to the breaches can ask for a maximum of $125.

Yahoo users who were paying for the $20-$50 premium plans may be eligible for a 25% refund, while the company will also be giving two years of free credit monitoring via AllClear, valued at $359.

This settlement comes after original estimates of damages look to be over $1 billion. However, Yahoo said that those numbers were off as many users “submitted false information about their birthdates, names and other parts of their lives when they set up their email.”

The settlement approval is set for a hearing in California on November 29th.


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Avatar for Michael Potuck Michael Potuck

Michael is an editor for 9to5Mac. Since joining in 2016 he has written more than 3,000 articles including breaking news, reviews, and detailed comparisons and tutorials.