T-Mobile to pay out $500 million over its 2021 data breach, which impacted over 76 million customers

• T-Mobile has agreed to pay a total of $500 million to settle a class action suit over a 2021 data breach.
• The lawsuit accused T-Mobile of failing to protect the data of 76.6 million customers.

T-Mobile on Friday tentatively agreed to pay a total of $500 million to settle a class-action lawsuit and improve data security stemming from a massive hack in 2021 that compromised an estimated 76.6 million people's data.

According to the proposed agreement filed on Friday with the Securities and Exchange Commission, T-Mobile agreed to a settlement of $350 million, which will go towards legal fees and an additional $150 million to improve "data security and related technology in 2022 and 2023."

In August 2021, T-Mobile announced the data breach, which at the time affected about 40 million customers. The data included personal information such as names, addresses, date of birth, driver's license data, and Social Security numbers.

According to the proposed agreement, the class action lawsuit alleged that T-Mobile had "failed to properly protect personal information in accordance with their duties" and "had inadequate data security."

The proposed agreement added that T-Mobile had denied all the allegations in the class action lawsuit, which claimed the company failed in its duty to protect customers' data.

According to the document, T-Mobile has at least 10 days to cover the cost of notifying people eligible to receive this claim if the proposal is approved.