Yahoo Class Action Filed Over Latest Data Breach Affecting 1B Users

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Yahoo! Inc. has been hit with a class action lawsuit following this week’s announcement that a 2013 data breach may have leaked the personal information of more than 1 billion users.

Plaintiff Amy Vail filed the Yahoo data breach class action lawsuit Wednesday in California federal court, accusing the beleaguered email provider of failing to protect its customers.

She filed the data breach class action lawsuit hours after Yahoo announced that hackers may have stolen the personal information of 1 billion users in 2013 by breaching their email accounts.

This data hack is different from the Yahoo data breach that was revealed in September.

Yahoo has reported that, in August 2013, an “unauthorized third party” utilized Yahoo’s proprietary code to forge cookies, allowing the party to steal personal data of 1 billion user accounts, the Yahoo class action lawsuit states.

This security incident was “likely distinct” from the one revealed in September, but Yahoo has reportedly connected the activity to the same state-sponsored actor that may have been responsible for the breach announced in September.

According to the Yahoo data breach class action lawsuit, “Yahoo failed, and continues to fail, to provide adequate protection of its users’ personal and confidential information and has failed to provide sufficient and timely notice or warning of potential and actual cybersecurity breaches to its users.”

Yahoo has reported that its users’ data has been compromised in two of the largest data security breaches that have ever been disclosed, the class action lawsuit asserts.

“As a result of Defendant’s failure to maintain adequate security measures and timely security breach notifications, Yahoo Users’ personal and private information has been repeatedly compromised and remains vulnerable,” Vail alleges.

“Further, Yahoo Users have suffered an ascertainable loss in that they have had to undertake additional security measures, at their own expense, to minimize the risk of future data breaches including, without limitation, changing passwords, security questions and security answers, and purchasing a credit freeze on their credit files,” the Yahoo class action lawsuit states.

Despite taking such precautions to safeguard their own data, Yahoo users can still not guarantee that their information will be adequately protected, Vail alleges.

The Yahoo class action lawsuit asserts claims for negligence, breach of express and implied contract, and violation of California’s Unfair Competition law. Vail seeks to represent herself and a nationwide Class of individuals who maintained a Yahoo account in the last four years that was potentially vulnerable to cybersecurity breaches.

Yahoo is no stranger to data breach class action lawsuits. It has been hit with at least three class action lawsuits over a 2014 data breach that allegedly resulted in the unauthorized access and publication of Yahoo users’ names, email addresses, phone numbers, birthdates, “hashed” passwords, as well as security questions and answers.

Vail is represented by Lee Cirsch, Robert Friedl and Trisha Monesi of Capstone Law APC.

The Yahoo Data Breach Class Action Lawsuit is Vail v. Yahoo! Inc., Case No. 3:16-cv-07154, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

UPDATE: On Aug. 30, 2017, Yahoo will continue to face a massive data breach class action lawsuit following a federal judge’s denial of the company’s motion for dismissal.

UPDATE 2: On Oct. 3, 2017, Yahoo announced that the personal private information of all 3 billion Yahoo users was exposed in a 2013 data hack.

UPDATE 3: On March 9, 2018, a federal judge trimmed some claims in a Yahoo email data breach multidistrict litigation, but lets others stand, finding flaws in most of the consumers’ effort to sue for punitive damages.

UPDATE 4: On Oct. 22, 2018, Yahoo users are seeking approval from a California federal judge for a $50 million settlement deal that would end three class action lawsuits claiming that Yahoo’s negligence led to data breaches affecting American and Israeli email users.

UPDATE 5: On Jan. 28, 2019, a federal judge denied a $50 million Yahoo class action settlement, finding the proposed deal lacked specific information about ways the tech company would improve data security.

UPDATE 6: On April 9, 2019, Yahoo has now agreed to pay $117.5 million to resolve legal claims regarding three large data breaches that affected the internet company.

UPDATE 7: On July 20, 2019, a federal judge has preliminarily signed off on a $117 million class action settlement agreement between Yahoo and accountholders who were affected by numerous data breaches.

UPDATE 8: September 2019, the Yahoo data breach class action settlement is now open. Click here to file a claim.