23andMe customers affected by the company’s reported data breach face two different decisions. The settlement claim deadline was February 17, 2026, and the supplied case update says the court granted final approval on January 30, 2026, so a new claim may no longer be available. The immediate privacy step for California customers is different: the state attorney general says they can request deletion of their genetic data and destruction of genetic material by using account settings. No payment amount or late-claim option is verified here.
What the settlement record confirms
The litigation concerns unauthorized access to 23andMe customer information. Keller Rohrback, a law firm representing plaintiffs, identifies the case as In re 23andMe, Inc. Customer Data Security Breach Litigation in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and also references 23andMe’s bankruptcy case in the Eastern District of Missouri.
According to the firm’s case update, plaintiffs and the debtors filed a joint motion for preliminary approval in September 2025. The bankruptcy judge granted preliminary approval on October 2, 2025, appointed Kroll as settlement administrator and set a final approval hearing for January 20, 2026. The same update says the judge granted final approval on January 30, 2026.
That distinction matters for consumers. The settlement was not merely awaiting a proposed agreement after the January order described by the firm; the firm says final approval was granted. But approval does not establish that a claimant is guaranteed a particular payment. The supplied material gives no payment estimate, individual award formula, documentation requirement or confirmed procedure for submitting a late claim.
The claim deadline has passed
The case update says Kroll began providing notice and accepting claims in November 2025, with a February 17, 2026, deadline. Because that date has passed, readers should not assume that visiting a settlement website will create eligibility or preserve a right to payment. The evidence supplied does not say whether Kroll will accept late claims, reopen the portal or provide an exception process.
If you submitted a claim by the deadline, retain your confirmation and monitor official settlement communications. The case update says benefits will not be distributed until the bankruptcy reconciliation process is resolved, a process that may take several months or longer. That means final approval and payment distribution are separate milestones. The evidence does not provide a distribution date or payment amount.
California customers have a separate privacy action
California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s March 21, 2025, consumer alert focused on data control rather than settlement payments. It says Californians have rights under the Genetic Information Privacy Act and the California Consumer Privacy Act to direct 23andMe to delete genetic data and destroy samples of genetic material held by the company.
The attorney general’s stated account path is: log in to 23andMe, open the profile’s “Settings” section, scroll to “23andMe Data,” select “View,” and review the deletion options. Before deleting an account, a customer who wants a personal copy can choose to download the genetic data, according to the alert. The customer can then reach the “Delete Data” section, select “Permanently Delete Data” and confirm the request through the email sent by 23andMe.
Deletion is not the same remedy as a settlement claim. It is a forward-looking privacy choice for the account and information covered by the company’s process; it does not automatically compensate someone for an earlier breach. Customers should also consider whether they need a copy of their data before confirming deletion, because the attorney general specifically places the download step before the permanent-deletion step.
What remains unverified for customers
The evidence describes sensitive information that may have been accessed, including names, dates of birth, family information, profile pictures, geographic locations and genetic information such as haplogroup results and predicted relationships. Keller Rohrback says 23andMe admitted the breach compromised approximately 7 million users. That figure is presented in the firm’s case overview, not as an independent estimate in the supplied materials.
Several consumer questions therefore remain open. The supplied sources do not verify the amount each approved claimant will receive, whether payments will be reduced by bankruptcy distributions, or when checks or electronic payments will be sent. They also do not establish a new deadline for people who missed February 17. Those details should be confirmed through Kroll or the court’s official settlement materials rather than inferred from final approval.
For a California customer deciding what to do now, the choices are practical: check whether a claim was already submitted, preserve any claim confirmation, and review the account-deletion process before taking action. Customers outside California may have different privacy rights, and the supplied evidence does not establish a nationwide deletion procedure or a separate state-by-state remedy.
The consumer decision is now split between a closed claims window and an available privacy review. The supplied litigation update says final approval followed a February 17, 2026, claim deadline, but it does not verify payment amounts, distribution timing or a late-claim route. California’s attorney general separately gives customers a concrete account path for downloading data and requesting permanent deletion, including destruction of genetic samples. That step may reduce future data exposure but is not a substitute for compensation. Customers who already filed should preserve confirmation records and wait for administrator updates while the bankruptcy reconciliation process proceeds.
Sources and methodology
- 23andMe, Calif. Spar Over Data Claims In Bankruptcy Court - https://www.law360.com/bankruptcy-authority/articles/2517250/23andme-calif-spar-over-data-claims-in-bankruptcy-court
- 23andMe Data Breach - https://www.kellerrohrback.com/currentcases/data-breach-23andme
- Attorney General Bonta Urgently Issues Consumer Alert for ... - https://oag.ca.gov/news/press-releases/attorney-general-bonta-urgently-issues-consumer-alert-23andme-customers
