Biotech company 23andMe has agreed to pay a $30 million settlement over a massive data breach that affected 6.9 million users.
From ReutersGenetic testing company Submitted Court documents detailing the settlement of a class action lawsuit in the Northern District of California were released on Thursday. In the documents, 23andMe offered to compensate victims of the data breach.
23andMe has confirmed how many people were affected by their data breach, and the news isn’t very good.
What is the 23andMe settlement?
In October 2023, 23andMe announced a data breach in which hackers stole users’ personal records and genetic information. However, the company only revealed the extent of the damage in December of the same year. The information of approximately 14,000 users was stolen, but the hackers used 23andMe’s relative-finding tool to access many more users, bringing the total number of affected users to 6.9 million.
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The class action lawsuit, filed in San Francisco, also alleges that 23andMe failed to adequately notify users of Chinese and Ashkenazi Jewish descent whose information was allegedly targeted on the dark web.
Although 23andMe has paid, that doesn’t mean that the $30 million will be shared equally among the victims of the breach. According to court documents, only $5 million will go to compensate users. More specifically, users who filed “special claims,” i.e., those who suffered financial fraud, are eligible to receive $10,000, but the rest of the users will only receive $100. The bulk of the settlement will go to attorneys’ fees.
The settlement will require 23andMe to strengthen its cybersecurity measures and offer a customized “Privacy & Medical Shield + Genetic Monitoring” to protect affected users from future fraud and identity theft issues. Once the settlement is approved by the court, 23andMe will launch a dedicated class action settlement website where users can submit individual claims.
So if you’re one of the millions of users affected, keep checking back for more information on how you can receive your (likely small) share of the settlement money.
