Doxxing is the collection and publication of personal information that exists online, with the intent to harass by exposing a person. While it is not technically illegal, it is clearly considered harassment by most internet users.
Thus, bills have been proposed to establish its prohibition by law and to consider it a criminal offense.
Doxxing Should I be worried?
Probably not. Doxxing is generally a targeted form of harassment, and if you have no reason to worry, you're probably safe. It's usually done to famous people online, or in real life. Many people online use a pseudonym, avoiding revealing more about themselves.
This is where doxxing comes in.
After searches, the real name and other private information are revealed and published online, revealing a person's true identity to everyone. This is of course a significant violation of the victim's privacy.
If your name, phone number, and real address are made public, it makes you vulnerable to a host of online crimes, including swatting , physical harassment, and stalking, to name a few. Of course, you're also more vulnerable to targeted phishing attacks , as attackers know much more about you that could pique your interest.
It should be noted that if your online presence is not significant, you don't need to worry. However, if you are a public figure and participate in political (and non-political) discussions on websites like Twitter and Facebook (which have a lot of your personal information stored), one wrong word can provoke reactions from those who disagree with you.
Occasionally, we've seen very unfortunate incidents of mistaken doxxing, like in 2013, when Reddit blamed the wrong person for the Boston bombing. The accused wasn't the bomber. It was a victim who had died after the bombing, and his family had to deal with his defense until the real suspect was found.
How to protect yourself
The majority of doxxing attacks occur where personal data is present, i.e. through social networks and not by hacking into personal computers.
It is very difficult to stop it because there are users who share too much data online. Here we should mention that even if you think your information is hidden, in reality it is not.
For example, even if you have hidden your birthday on Facebook, a search on your timeline for the terms “chronia połości” “nę viśis” “Happy Birthday” etc. will show your birthday. Once an attacker knows exactly when you were born, they can more easily access data that exists on other services.
So hiding your birthday can only protect you from people who don’t know how to discover data.
On the other hand, hiding all your personal information is against the terms of social networks.
Sure, it makes sense not to post your address, phone number, or birthday online, but there are also those who can infer a lot about you from your seemingly innocuous posts. Every little detail can be used to reveal the next one.
Deleting old posts and being careful about what data your posts hide is an option that can help you, if you don't choose the radical solution of completely deleting your account.
