What is Doxxing and why is it bad?

Doxxing is the collection and publication of one's personal information on , 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. Since many of them use a pseudonym on the internet, revealing their real name is a significant breach of privacy. 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 on a hot topic on sites like Twitter and Facebook (where you probably already have your personal information) and a wrong word can cause a wave of hatred in 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 harvesting data from your personal profiles from social media sites rather than an actual email . It is difficult to prevent this from happening as almost everyone shares too much information online. 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 at the posts on your 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 "Sherlock Holmes" of the internet from discovering your information, it will stop many prying eyes. So it's best 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.

Deleting old posts and being careful in the future is an option to take more drastic measures. Immediately the most drastic measure is to delete every account on , but nobody wants to do it.

But you should remember that the internet doesn't forget. Each of you it exists even if you don't see it. So it's a good idea not to post sensitive information that will embarrass you if it becomes 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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