Earlier this year, an Ontario court approved a settlement of a class-action lawsuit filed against Yahoo Inc. and Yahoo Canada Co. for data breaches. Now, lawyers are reminding Canadians that the window to submit a claim is closing soon.
“Time is running out to claim cash reimbursement from a $20 million settlement. Yahoo! and Rogers account holders in Canada have until December 27 to claim settlement benefits relating to Yahoo! data breaches occurring between 2013 and 2016,” Charney Lawyers said in a release Friday morning.
For context, Rogers email is powered by Yahoo.
The first data breach occurred in 2013, and Yahoo issued a notice on December 14, 2016. The second breach occurred in 2014, and Yahoo issued a notice on September 22, 2016. In February 2017, Yahoo issued a notice about the third breach that occurred in 2015 and 2016.
The class-action lawsuit alleges that Yahoo failed to protect account holders’ personal information and that the data breaches were due to “inadequate data security measures in place.”
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“The defendants Yahoo Inc. and Yahoo! Canada Co. deny that they have violated any laws and deny that they have engaged in any wrongdoing,” reads a court notice.
To be eligible, you must be a Canadian resident with a Yahoo account between January 1, 2012, and December 31, 2016.
There are two types of claims.
Category A includes users who incurred expenses within four months of receiving any of the data breach notices and can submit a claim for cash reimbursement. You can also get paid $25 an hour for a maximum of five hours spent “mitigating the impact of the three data breaches (up to a combined total of 15 hours).”
As a result, if you were affected by all of the data breaches, you can claim a maximum of $375.
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Finally, if you paid for the premium ad-free email services or Aabaco Small Business services between August 1, 2013, and December 31, 2016, you can claim 25% of the costs of those services.
Under category B, Canadians can claim up to five hours of “wasted time and inconvenience” responding to each of the three data breaches. You’ll be eligible for a total of $375, which is $125 for each data breach.
Credit Monitoring Services for up to one year plus cash reimbursement for out-of-pocket costs up to $25,000 and up to 25% for costs of paid services such as Yahoo advertisement-free or premium email services and/or Yahoo/Aabaco Small Business services.
To submit a claim, you must provide your Yahoo email address, documentation of expenses incurred, and other documents. The deadline to submit a claim is December 27, 2024.
You can submit your claims online here, or you can request a paper claim form to be mailed to you by phone at 1-866-808-8075.
With files from Irish Mae Silvestre