Block to Pay Cash App Users Up to $2,500 in Data Breach Settlement

Cash App users may be eligible for part of a multimillion-dollar settlement from the company.

The payments platform and its parent Block agreed earlier this year to pay $15 million to settle a suit claiming the company had failed to protect customers from data breaches.

Now, those users — past and present — can submit a claim for a piece of that settlement, for up to $2,500, according to a website set up by the plaintiffs. 

As PYMNTS has reported, Cash App and Block were sued in 2022 for “negligent” behavior in connection with a data breach in late 2021 that apparently compromised 8.2 million current and former users’ personal information.

Block has said that the breach was the result of a former employee still having access to reports that contained users’ full names and brokerage account numbers.

“While this employee had regular access to these reports as part of their past job responsibilities, in this instance these reports were accessed without permission after their employment ended,” the company said in an SEC filing. 

The lawsuit had alleged that the employee was able to access this information because of insufficient security protections, and argued the plaintiffs faced increased risk for identity theft and fraud.

The lawsuit also cited the fact that Cash App waited several months to notify, which caused additional harm to customers that “they otherwise could have avoided had a timely disclosure been made.”

Meanwhile, Block released quarterly earnings recently, and with them its plans to pursue an opportunity to make Cash App the chief financial services partner of choice for families making up to $150,000 by fueling paycheck deposit adoption and increasing inflows.

The company calls this its “bank the base” strategy and recently began testing incentives to drive new paycheck deposit activities as a growth strategy.

“The incentives matter here,” Block founder Jack Dorsey said.

“It is about making Cash App our base’s primary financial tool,” Block CFO Amrita Ahuja added. “Which ultimately leads to stronger engagement and stronger inflows.”

The company’s Cash App Card saw 24 million monthly active users in June, 13% year-over-year increase, while inflows per active user enjoyed healthy growth, climbing 10% year over year in the quarter.