People whose private information was potentially exposed in the August 31 to September 14, 2024 network intrusion at Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences may qualify to claim a flat $25, or up to $5,080 in documented losses and lost time, from the ACPHS data security incident class action settlement. Claims close November 16, 2026, and the final approval hearing is set for December 10, 2026.
Current Status
Claims are open and close November 16, 2026. The Supreme Court of Albany County, New York authorized notice to the class and set a final approval hearing for December 10, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time; no final approval order has been entered and no payment date has been announced. Class members who want to leave the settlement, or who want to object to it, have until October 16, 2026 — a month before claims close. Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences denies all claims, allegations, liability and wrongdoing, and the court has not determined that it did anything wrong.What Changed Recently?
The claim period opened once the court authorized notice to the class in the case captioned Levin, et al. v. Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Index No. 906277-25, pending in the Supreme Court of Albany County, New York. The complaint alleges that ACPHS became aware of a cybersecurity incident between August and September 2024 in which a criminal third party gained unauthorized access to the college's network, and that the incident may have exposed class members' private information.Both sides agreed to settle to avoid the cost, risk and delay of a trial, and the court has not decided whether the plaintiffs or ACPHS are right. There has been no later development on the docket that the settlement documents disclose; the next scheduled event is the December 10, 2026 final approval hearing.
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Who Qualifies?
The court defined the settlement class as all persons residing in the United States whose private information was potentially impacted as a result of the data security incident affecting ACPHS's computer systems between August 31, 2024, and September 14, 2024.The notice describes the information that may have been involved as names, Social Security numbers, financial information, birth and marriage certificates, passport numbers, driver's license numbers, health insurance information, medical information and student information. It does not say which of those categories applied to any particular person, and it does not state how many people were notified. OCA covered this incident at the intake stage — the earlier Albany College of Pharmacy data breach investigation has what ACPHS disclosed at the time.
Excluded from the class are ACPHS itself along with its officers, directors, agents, affiliates, parents, subsidiaries, successors and assigns and any entity in which it holds a controlling interest; anyone who timely and validly requests exclusion; the judges assigned to the case, their staff and their immediate families; and anyone a court of competent jurisdiction finds criminally responsible for initiating, causing, aiding or abetting the incident, or who pleads no contest to such a charge.
How Much Can You Get?
Every class member who files can take the credit monitoring and then one of two cash paths. Nothing here is automatic — the monitoring has its own checkbox on the claim form, so a class member who files nothing receives nothing.The monitoring is two years of CyEx Financial Shield Total. The notice describes it as carrying $1 million in financial fraud insurance and monitoring for fraud or identity theft, unauthorized financial transactions, and personal information associated with high-risk transactions, with access to a fraud resolution agent if something suspicious turns up.
The first cash path reimburses actual, documented out-of-pocket losses traceable to the incident, up to $5,000, for losses incurred between August 31, 2024, and November 16, 2026. The notice gives examples:
- losses from identity theft or fraud
- fees for credit reports, credit monitoring, or freezing and unfreezing credit
- the cost of replacing IDs
- postage to contact banks by mail
The second path is a flat one-time alternative cash payment of $25, which requires no proof of loss and no explanation. The claim form is explicit that it cannot be combined with a documented-loss or lost-time claim. Which path is worth more depends on what a class member can document — $25 is a floor rather than an estimate of what a documented claim would pay, and the $80 lost-time claim alone, which rests on an attestation rather than receipts, already exceeds it.
The notice does not state a total settlement fund, and it does not describe a pro rata reduction or an aggregate cap on cash payments. Class counsel will ask the court to approve up to $300,000 in attorneys' fees and litigation costs, and service awards of $2,500 for each class representative up to $10,000 in total. If approved, both are to be paid by ACPHS rather than deducted from class members' payments.
What Proof or Notice ID Is Required?
Filing online requires a LoginID and a PIN, both printed on the notice the administrator mailed or emailed to class members. There is no way past the login screen on the settlement website without them, which is why this page marks Proof Required: Yes — OCA treats any administrator-issued identifier as proof, even where no receipts are involved.The downloadable paper claim form is less strict on that point. It asks for the Login ID only "if known," so mailing a form is the route for a class member who never received a notice or no longer has it. Anyone in that position can reach the administrator through the contact page on the official settlement website.
Proof of loss is a separate question from the login credential. The $25 alternative cash payment needs no documentation at all. A documented-loss claim needs records such as bank statements or receipts showing what was spent or lost; the notice says self-prepared notes or papers may support other proof but are not enough on their own to make a valid claim, and the proof should show the expense came from the data security incident. A lost-time claim requires a brief description of how the time was spent plus an attestation, under penalty of perjury, that it was spent because of the incident.
What Is the Deadline?
An online claim is due November 16, 2026. The settlement website, the notice and the claim form all agree on that date, and no official timezone is specified for it.The rule for a mailed claim is not consistent across the three documents, and the difference is large enough to cost someone their claim. The settlement website says a mailed claim form must be postmarked no later than November 16, 2026. The notice says postmarked no later than November 15, 2026. The claim form says twice that claims must be received by November 16, 2026, which is stricter than either postmark rule because it turns on delivery rather than the date of mailing. Filing online removes the ambiguity; a class member set on mailing should work to the earliest reading and send the form well before mid-November.
The deadline to exclude yourself is October 16, 2026, and a request for exclusion must be submitted or postmarked by that date. An objection must be filed with the Clerk of the Court by October 16, 2026, with copies sent to the settlement administrator, class counsel and counsel for ACPHS.
How Do You Take Action?
Claims are filed on the official settlement website, Albany College Settlement.com. The online form opens with the LoginID and PIN from the notice, then works through four decisions: whether to enroll in the two years of credit monitoring, whether to claim documented losses, whether to claim lost time, and whether to take the $25 alternative payment instead of the other two. A payment method is chosen on the same form, with PayPal, Venmo, Zelle and a physical check as the options.A printable claim form is available from the same website for anyone who would rather mail one, and it can be signed and mailed with supporting documentation to the settlement administrator at the address printed on the form.
A class member who wants to keep the right to sue ACPHS separately has to say so in writing by October 16, 2026, following the instructions in the notice; a request for exclusion cannot be made by telephone or email, and one person cannot opt out on another's behalf. Doing nothing means staying in the class, giving up the claims released under Section XI of the settlement agreement, and receiving no benefit.
What Happens Next?
The next scheduled event is the final approval hearing on December 10, 2026 at 10:00 a.m. Eastern Time in the Supreme Court of Albany County, New York. The notice says the hearing may also be held remotely and that its date, time or location can change without further notice, so the official settlement website is the place to confirm it.At that hearing the court will decide whether to approve the settlement, whether to award the requested attorneys' fees and costs, and whether to approve the service awards, and it will consider any objections. Class members do not have to attend, and an objection filed on time is considered whether or not the objector shows up.
If the court grants final approval, payments follow once the approval is final and any appeals are resolved. The notice says it is not known whether appeals will be filed or how long they would take, and no payment date has been announced.
Sources and Verification
- Notice of Proposed Class Action Settlement and Claim Form — Levin, et al. v. Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, Index No. 906277-25 (Supreme Court of Albany County, New York)
- Official settlement website — Albany College Settlement.com
- Settlement agreement and related filings — Important Documents page
- Frequently asked questions — official settlement FAQs
Questions
Can I take the credit monitoring and a cash payment, or is it one or the other?
Both. The notice says class members may submit a claim for credit monitoring and one or more of the cash payment options. The two years of CyEx Financial Shield Total sits alongside whichever cash path you pick, so choosing the $25 alternative payment does not cost you the monitoring. The only either-or is inside the cash half: the $25 payment cannot be combined with a documented-loss or lost-time claim.
What if my documented losses come to less than $25?
Then the flat $25 alternative cash payment is likely worth more, and you would file for that instead. The claim form treats the two as mutually exclusive and says not to claim the $25 if you are claiming under the documented-loss or lost-time sections. Lost time is the piece people overlook: four hours at $20 an hour is $80 on an attestation, with no receipts, which already beats the $25 if you genuinely spent that time responding to the incident.
I never received a notice with a LoginID and PIN. Can I still file a claim?
Not through the online portal. The settlement website says you must log in with the LoginID and PIN printed on the notice that was sent to you, and there is no way past that screen without them. The downloadable paper claim form is less strict: it asks for the Login ID only if known, so a mailed claim is the route for someone who cannot find the code. If you believe you are in the class but never got a notice, use the contact page on the official settlement website to reach the administrator before the deadline.
Why do the settlement documents give different deadlines for mailing a claim form?
They do disagree, and it is worth knowing before you rely on the mail. The settlement website says a mailed claim must be postmarked no later than November 16, 2026. The notice says postmarked no later than November 15, 2026. The claim form says twice that claims must be received by November 16, 2026, which is stricter than either postmark rule because it depends on delivery time rather than the date you mail. All three agree that an online claim is due November 16, 2026, so filing online removes the question entirely.
Does opting out get me a bigger payment?
No. Opting out pays nothing from this settlement. What it does is preserve whatever right you may have to sue Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences or the other released parties on your own over the released claims. That trade only makes sense for someone with a substantial individual loss who intends to pursue it separately, and the request for exclusion has to be mailed and postmarked by October 16, 2026. You cannot both opt out and object, because a settlement you have left no longer affects you.
Is any part of this settlement automatic if I do nothing?
No. Every benefit in this settlement runs through the claim form, including the credit monitoring, which has its own checkbox in Section II. A class member who files nothing receives nothing and still gives up the released claims described in Section XI of the settlement agreement. That makes this different from settlements where a base payment goes out automatically from the defendant's records and only the extras need a form.
