What is Doxxing? Definition and Examples

What is Doxxing?

Doxxing is basically the act of publicly disclosing or publishing someone’s private, sensitive, or personally identifiable information (PII) without their consent. The back story of the term goes back to hackers of the 90s. It comes from the phrase “dropping documents”, when they used to expose someone’s identity as a kind of retaliation. In today’s world, it is no longer limited to this scope. The term now spans various malicious intentions that often include harassment, public shaming, or intimidation. What they target today may even go as far as their banking details.

The Evolution of Doxxing 

Dox is actually a short version of “documents” which emerged during the booming hacker subculture in the early days of the Internet. While it used to be a practice between rival hackers at first, it no longer remains as such. The ever evolving technology certainly made this exposing practice much easier with the emergence of social media platforms, search engines or public data registries. Even if these practices may appear harmful on the paper, when done against criminals or whistleblowers there is a high chance that they may get public support.

Commonly Exposed Information in Doxxing 

Similar to the early-day practices, sharing full names or addresses still remain relevant in these acts. Unfortunately, it is not limited to these anymore. Phone numbers, emails, government IDs or social security numbers, IP addresses, workplace information and social media handles are also included in the exposed information. And almost all of them pose a threat to privacy and security by creating further exploitation. 

Legal Implications of Doxxing 

The motivations behind doxxing are as varied as its consequences. Understanding these motives is crucial for identifying risks and discouraging malicious acts. The motivations behind doxxing vary. For example, it may be plainly used as a tool for harassment or retaliation. The motivation of retaliation may include acts of extortion as well. In today’s world where “cancel culture” is more prevalent than ever, doxxing remains as an essential tool to benefit from to further public shame individuals. 

So far, we have mostly covered individual motivations. Nevertheless, these implications contain collective motivations as well. For example in the midst of political or social conflict, it can be employed to harm opponents, or in case powerful organizations and governments are targeted, they may make use of whistleblower targeting.  

How Does Doxxing Happen?

Contrary to popular belief, doxxing doesn’t require advanced hacking skills or tools since targets of doxxing can often facilitate this process by oversharing their locations, daily routines or even their vacation plans on social media or leaving their forum history open on the internet. Furthermore if the owner didn’t enable privacy protection when registering a domain, their details can be easily accessible through a WHOIS lookup. Of course, the victims are not the only ones to hold the aces. For example data brokers that collect and sell sensitive personal information or data leaks from breaches continue to be significant threats.

The scale of these dangers has only grown. For instance, in 2023 alone, over 5 billion user credentials were found in public data leaks, significantly lowering the barrier for malicious actors to engage in doxxing. 

Is Doxing Illegal?

Examples of Doxing 

Consequences of Doxxing 

There are unfortunately several layers of consequences. These consequences may affect victim’s finances (make unauthorized transactions or open credit lines), physical safety (physical violence or stalking), reputation, personal relationships, mental health (heightened levels of stress, anxiety or even PTSD) and family members. According to a 2023 survey, 41 percent of doxxing victims reported long-term psychological harm, and one in five experienced direct physical threats.

How to Prevent and Protect Yourself Against Doxxing? 

Thankfully there are several ways to avoid such consequences that we have mentioned in the last paragraph. You may choose to use aliases instead of your full name, set your social media account visibility to private, enable two-factor authentication (2FA), use virtual private networks (VPNs), not utilize personal emails for public use. You may even try to “dox” yourself by searching your name, email addresses, phone numbers or other identifying details using search engines. 

Recommended Privacy Tools and Services Against Doxxing

We recommend several privacy tools and services that you can use. For VPNs, NordVPN and ExpressVPN are reliable service providers. Aura and LifeLock are dependable identify monitoring services. It is also sensible to use password managers such as Bitwarden and 1Password. Lastly, another obvious decision to guarantee your safety is to use data privacy services such as DeleteMe and Privacy Bee. 

What to Do If You’ve Been Doxxed?

Even if you have applied all of the measures or even subscribed to the service providers we have mentioned in the previous paragraphs, you may still be a target of Doxxing. In such case there are still actions that you can take to block further advances. You should make sure that you have taken detailed screenshots of published information (timestamps, usernames and URLs), directly contact platforms that the inappropriate content was uploaded, check your financial and online accounts for any kind of unusual activity and use Google’s removal tools to hide your information from search engine results. Also don’t hesitate to consult with a legal professional to explore your options or report it to local law enforcement.