A Canadian court has approved a settlement of a class-action lawsuit against Yahoo! Inc. and Yahoo! Canada Co., and Canadian users can now submit a claim.
According to a class-action notice, the Ontario Superior Court has approved a settlement in a lawsuit that claims Yahoo faced several data breaches between 2013 and 2016.
The first data breach occurred in 2013, and Yahoo issued a notice on December 14, 2016. The second breach took place 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.
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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.”
“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 the notice.
To be eligible, you must be a Canadian resident who had Yahoo accounts between January 1, 2012, and December 31, 2016.
There are two types of claims.
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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.
Finally, if you paid for the premium ad-free email services or Aabaco Small Business services between August 1, 2013, and December 31, 206, 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.
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 calling 1-866-808-8075.