How much is your data worth? About $700. Following the OPM hack of the personal data of approximately 26 million individuals, a series of class action lawsuits were filed. Those lawsuits were lumped into a single settlement, and affected individuals may expect to receive an average of $700, according to Epiq Class Action & Claims Solutions, the firm United States District Court for the District of Columbia appointed to handle the settlement claims.
The U.S. Office of Personnel Management breaches occurred in 2014 and 2015. The defendants in the case were OPM and contractors Peraton Risk Decision Inc. (previously known as Keypoint Government Solutions). Both denied wrongdoing but agreed to settle the lawsuit.
To be eligible for funds individuals must meet one of three criteria related to lost time or money in connection with the OPM data breach. The settlement specifies:
- to purchase a credit monitoring product, credit or identity theft protection product, or other product or service designed to identify or remediate the data breaches;
- to access, freeze or unfreeze a credit report with a credit reporting agency; or
- as a result of an identity theft incident or to mitigate an identity theft incident.
Eligible claimants under the Settlement will receive $700 or the actual amount of the claim—whichever is greater—up to a maximum of $10,000, unless the total value of all valid claims, plus any incentive awards to named plaintiffs, exceeds the amount of money in the fund.
You can file your claim here. You can also opt out of or object to the settlement.
OPM (as authorized by Congress) has made free credit monitoring and identity theft protection services available to all individuals whose personal information was compromised in the data breaches. If you have not signed up for these services but wish to do so, visit www.opm.gov/cybersecurity or call 1-800-750-3004 Monday through Saturday, between 9:00 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
