What is Doxxing and why is it bad?

Doxxing is the collection and publication of personal information on the Internet, usually for the purpose of inciting harassment in real life.

Although not technically illegal, it is considered harassment by most people and has been suggested bills to be charged in the future as a crime.

Should I worry about that?

Probably not. The Doxxing it is generally a targeted attack, similar to harassment in your real life and if you have not targeted someone, you are probably safe.

It usually affects Internet celebrities such as live streamers, YouTubers and social media celebrities. As many of them use a pseudonym on the internet, revealing their real name is important of confidentiality. Publishing your name, phone number and address online leaves you vulnerable to real risks, such as  theft.

Although you may not have to worry so much if you keep a low profile on the Internet, these days it can go viral very quickly for many different reasons.

Political discussions, especially about a hot topic on sites like Twitter and (where your personal information probably already resides) and one wrong word can send a wave of hate to anyone who disagrees with you.

Occasionally, they do dox for other reasons, such as in 2013 when Reddit blamed against wrong one person for being the Boston Bomber. But it was not him. He was a victim who had died in the incident, and his family had to deal with many angry people until the real suspect was found.

How to protect yourself

The vast majority of doxxing incidents come from people collecting data from your personal profiles from social media sites and not from a real cyber intrusion. It is difficult to prevent this as almost everyone is sharing too much information on the internet. So even low profile people could fall victim.

For example, even if you have hidden your birthday on your Facebook profile, many people can discover it by looking through the posts in your news feed until they find "Happy Birthday". Once they know when you were born, they will be able to more easily access data from other sites. But while hiding your birthday in public won't stop the “ Holmes" of the internet to discover your information, will stop many prying eyes. So is to keep the date private.

Realistically though, hiding all your personal information and the contrasts you with social media. Sure, there's no point in posting your address, phone number or birthday online, people can infer a lot about you based on your seemingly innocuous posts, even if they contain very little details like where you work.

Η of old posts and if you are careful in the future it is an option to take more drastic measures. Obviously the most drastic measure is to delete all social media accounts, but no one wants to do that.

But you must remember that the internet does not forget. Your every piece of information exists even if you do not see it. So it would be good not to publish sensitive information, which will put you in a difficult position if they circulate in public.

 

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Written by Anastasis Vasileiadis

Translations are like women. When they are beautiful they are not faithful and when they are faithful they are not beautiful.

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