Judge approves AT&T’s $177 million data settlement

A federal judge approved AT&T’s $177 million settlement over two 2024 data incidents, but the decision does not guarantee a payment to every affected customer or establish the company’s liability. Senior U.S. District Judge Sidney A. Fitzwater approved the agreement on October 2, 2026, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas. AT&T agreed to resolve the litigation without admitting liability or wrongdoing. The settlement allocates $149 million to claims involving the first incident and $28 million to claims involving the second. The first incident, disclosed in March 2024, involved customer information that appeared in a dataset released on the dark web. AT&T said approximately 7.6 million current customers and 65.4 million former customers were affected. The second incident, disclosed in July 2024, involved records downloaded from a third-party cloud workspace. Those records included call and text interaction data, not the contents of communications. The settlement provides different payment paths, depending on the incident, claim type and supporting documentation. Eligible people in the first class may seek reimbursement of up to $5,000 for qualifying...