Image credit: AT&T
AT&T's $177 million breach settlement won final approval, and most claims are estimated to pay under $10. Even the top payment tier, for people whose Social Security numbers were exposed, is estimated at only about $40. Those payouts are a long way from the "up to $5,000" maximum that was widely reported while claims were open.
The settlement ends lawsuits over two AT&T data breaches announced in 2024. In the first breach, a data set released on the dark web allegedly included Social Security numbers, birth dates, and account passcodes. The second involved call records downloaded from AT&T's account on a cloud platform run by Snowflake, and the data included customer phone numbers, the numbers they contacted, and call counts and durations. Customers sued, claiming AT&T failed to protect their information and notify them of the breaches in a timely manner.
The $5,000 maximum from the first breach, and cap of $2,500 in the second, remain the ceilings for people who could document specific losses traced to the breaches. Everyone else only gets a share of what remains in the fund after documented losses and legal fees – approved by the court at $59 million – are covered.
Kroll Settlement Administration, the company running the claims process, estimates that Tier 1 claimants, whose Social Security numbers were exposed in the first breach, will receive about $39 to $40. Tier 2 claimants, from the first breach but without an exposed Social Security number, should receive roughly $7.50 to $8.10. While Tier 3 claimants, from the second breach, will get roughly $6.50 to $7.10.
Claims closed on December 18, 2025, so filers have nothing left to do while Kroll processes payments. The settlement agreement calls for payments within 60 days after the settlement takes effect. However, no payment date has been set, yet.
