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A US healthcare firm has reached a multi-million dollar settlement aimed at ending a data breach lawsuit.
According to the settlement administrator’s portal, the multi-specialty medical practice Watson Clinic will pay $10 million to resolve a class action lawsuit that was filed after hackers accessed sensitive data belonging to patients in early 2024.
“Watson’s investigation of the Data Incident determined that the threat actor accessed data pertaining to Watson’s current and former patients, including name, address, birth date, Social Security number or similar government identifier, driver’s license number, financial account information, and/or medical information, which may include details such as diagnoses, treatments, pre- and or post-operative medically necessary images, or medical record numbers.”
Settlement class members who had one or more images exposing the face and sensitive areas published on the dark web are eligible to receive cash payments of $75,000.
Individuals who had an image that exposed a part of their face published on the dark web receive $40,000.
The settlement class members who had an image of other parts of their body other than the full face or a part of the face published on the dark web are eligible to receive cash payments that range from $100 to $10,000.
Individuals who suffered extraordinary losses that can be traced to the data breach and who also lost time addressing the incident are eligible to receive $6,500.
The settlement class members who suffered ordinary out-of-pocket losses will be eligible to receive $500.
There will also be residual cash payments of $50 that will be handed out to all settlement class members if there are sufficient funds that remain after all other claims have been resolved.
Claims must be submitted by February 5th of 2026. The final approval hearing for the settlement will be held on March 9th of 2026.
Though the Florida-based Watson Clinic has agreed to the settlement, the healthcare firm denies any wrongdoing.
