Two sizable data breaches in 2019 and 2024 exposed the personal information of AT&T customers, but now the company is set to resolve the matter with a gigantic settlement pay out — and you don’t even have to still be a customer to get in on it.

On Friday, June 20, US District Judge Ada Brown granted preliminary approval to the terms of a proposed settlement from AT&T that would resolve two lawsuits related to the data breaches. The current settlement would see AT&T pay $177 million to customers adversely affected by at least one of the two data breaches. 

The settlement will prioritize larger payments to customers who suffered damages that are «fairly traceable» to the data leaks. It will also provide bigger payments to those affected by the larger of the two leaks, which began in 2019. While the company is working toward a settlement, it has continued to deny that it was «responsible for these criminal acts.»

For all the details we have about the settlement right now, keep reading, and for more info about other recent settlements, find out how to claim Apple’s Siri privacy settlement and see if you’re eligible for 23andMe’s privacy breach settlement.

What happened with these AT&T data breaches?

AT&T confirmed the two data breaches last year, announcing an investigation into the first in March before confirming it in May and confirming the second in July.

The first of the confirmed breaches began in 2019. The company revealed that about 7.6 million current and 65.4 million former account holders had their data exposed to hackers, including names, Social Security numbers and dates of birth. The company began investigating the situation last year after it reported that customer data had appeared on the dark web. 

The second breach began in April of 2024, when a hacker broke into AT&T cloud storage provider Snowflake and accessed 2022 call and text records for almost all of the company’s US customers, about 109 million in all. The company stressed that no names were attached to the stolen data. Two individuals were arrested in connection with the breach.

Both of these incidents sparked a wave of class action lawsuits alleging corporate neglect on the part of AT&T in failing to sufficiently protect its customers.

Who is eligible to file a claim for the AT&T data breach settlement?

As of now, we know that the settlement will pay out to any current or former AT&T customer whose data was accessed in one of these data breaches, with higher payments reserved for those who can provide documented proof that they suffered damages directly resulting from their data being stolen.

If you’re eligible, you should receive a notice about it, either by email or a physical letter in the mail, sometime in the coming months. The company expects that the claims process will begin on Aug. 4, 2025.

How much will the AT&T data breach payments be?

You’ll have to «reasonably» prove damages caused by these data breaches to be eligible for the highest and most prioritized payouts. For the 2019 breach, those claimants can receive up to $5,000. For the Snowflake breach in 2024, the max payout will be $2,500. It’s not clear at this time how the company might be handling customers who’ve been affected by both breaches.

AT&T will focus on making those payments first, and whatever’s left of the $177 million settlement total will be disbursed to anyone whose data was accessed, even without proof of damages. Because these payouts depend on how many people get the higher amounts first, we can’t say definitively how much they will be.

When could I get paid from the AT&T data breach settlement?

AT&T expects that payments will start to go out sometime in early 2026. Exact dates aren’t available but the recent court order approving the settlement lists a notification schedule of Aug. 4, to Oct. 17, 2025. 

The deadline for submitting a claim is currently set at Nov. 18, 2025. The final approval of the settlement needs to be given at a Dec. 3, 2025, court hearing for payments to begin.

Stay tuned to this piece in the coming months to get all the new details as they emerge. 

For more money help, check out CNET’s daily tariff price impact tracker.

Discount available: Marshall’s Major V headphones are worth it even at full price but right now they’re down to $100 — or around 38% off — on Amazon, their all-time lowest price on the site. This covers the black, brown and cream colored versions, but not the midnight blue version for whatever reason.

I might not be a true battle-tested headphone expert like CNET’s David Carnoy but I still love headphones and I’m confident in what I like about them. My most recent pickup, the Marshall Major V on-ear Bluetooth headphones, quickly became a pair that I adore.

What is Marshall?

Marshall is a British audio hardware company that got its start in the early ’60s and became renowned for producing amps and speakers for live music performances. More recently, it’s made a mark in consumer audio, producing home speakers with a distinctly rock ‘n’ roll aesthetic — think rough-patterned black leather materials, gold trim and prominent physical buttons. 

Hey, did you know? CNET Deals texts are free, easy and save you money. 

The brand also has brought its signature sound and style to headphones. Recently, I picked up the Major V, Marshall’s latest iteration of its on-ear Bluetooth model (that’s V as in 5), and I could hardly love them more. Marshall boasts that these headphones can last up to 100 hours on one charge, an almost ludicrous number that has largely held up as I’ve used them. The audio quality, while not a patch on the heavier hitters in the Bluetooth market, is excellent for its price, with strong bass and clean high notes. Vocals can sometimes come off a little shabby at first blush, but I find you get used to it real quick.

The connectivity performance has also really impressed me. For such a cheap pair of headphones, the Major V easily maintain connections to at least two devices at a time and can switch between them almost seamlessly. That’s not something I’ve found to be the case for a lot of the affordable Bluetooth headphones I’ve tried in the past. It’s a strong contender overall in the budget Bluetooth headphones space.

Why does this deal matter?

I was able to scoop up the Marshall Major V for $100, the lowest their price has gone since they debuted last year. For that price, it’s basically a steal. For the amount of blissful use I’ve gotten out of them so far — listening to music, watching movies or getting through my audiobooks — it’s been more than worth the price of admission. They usually retail for about $160, making their current price a 38% discount.