Doxxing: What it is and how to protect yourself

When someone doxxes you by publishing your personal details online, you might experience a surge in harassment, hateful messages, or even threats. Often, this alarming attention is the first sign many people have that they’ve been doxxed. Even in milder cases, losing online privacy can be deeply unsettling, affecting mental health and exposing you to potential financial risks.

Read our guide to discover what exactly doxxing is, how doxxing works, how you can help protect yourself, and what you can do if your privacy is compromised.

What is the meaning of doxxing?

Doxxing, short for dropping dox or documents, occurs when someone, often a cyberbully or cybercriminal, maliciously publishes personal identifying information about you on the internet without your consent. They might post personal information such as your ID, address, place of work, personal photos, or other identifiable information. 

Generally, cyberbullies commit doxxing attacks to:

• Get revenge
• Troll for attention or entertainment
• Extort money
• Harass people
• Punish those whose opinions they disagree with

According to data by SafeHome.org, the most common factors that fuel doxxing attacks are poorly received public posts, perceived slights, a difference of opinions, or gaming disputes. Following a disagreement, the attacker usually makes it their goal to shame the target, incite violence, cause them to lose their job, or inflict other harm. 

How to protect yourself against doxxing

There’s no sure-fire way to stop yourself from getting doxxed, but you can use a few tactics to make it less likely. Here are some tips to help you ward off attacks: 

• Don’t overshare online: Be cautious about sharing your birthday, hometown, high school, or employer online. Never publish your home address, driver’s licence number, bank account number, or credit card number.
• Ask data brokers to remove your information: People-search sites, data brokers, and other online databases may compile public information on people and sell it. The Norton 360 Deluxe Dark Web Monitoring feature can let you know if your information ends up on the dark web.
• Don’t antagonise others: Be careful about what you say online. Someone you annoy may be more likely to seek out your personal information to doxx you. Poor netiquette or antagonistic behavior may increase this risk. 
• Delete old social media profiles: Don’t allow doxxers to search through old posts that may have aged poorly or give them insight into your life — delete content that is no longer important to you and close old accounts. 
• Update privacy settings: Configure the privacy settings on your social media profiles to keep your accounts secure and less prone to doxxing. 
• Use a virtual private network (VPN): A VPN masks your device's IP address and helps protect the data you send and receive, keeping you safer from doxxers. 
• Get creative with your usernames: A doxxer can track your username across the internet to find your posts on various platforms. Unless it’s a part of your brand, consider using different usernames for each account.
• Don’t click unknown links: Doxxers might use phishing to trick you into sharing private information or downloading malware. To avoid phishing, be wary of “businesses” urgently asking you to click a link or navigate to another page. 
• Create strong passwords: Use strong, unique passwords on every site — especially on accounts you use to manage your finances and work communications. 
• Use different email addresses: Use different emails for different purposes to mitigate damage in the event of a doxxing attack. For instance, you might want to create separate email accounts for commercial mail, social media, work, and school.

Is doxxing illegal in Australia?

Doxxing can have legal consequences if the personal data published exposes someone to harassment, threats or other types of harm as per the Criminal Code Act 1995. On top of this, doxxing may overlap with offences such as harassment, stalking or cybercrime if the personal information was obtained through unauthorised access.

Information people might use to dox you

People can use information from public sources, leaked databases, social media, online directories or data brokers to piece together details about you such as where you live, work, and study.

This may include:

• Full name
• Phone number
• Email address
• Home or work address
• Employer
• School
• Business registration details

Following a data leak, doxers may also be able to access private information by buying it off the dark web and publishing it on public forums.

Norton 360 Deluxe includes powerful anti-hacking protection to help keep your data secure. It also monitors the dark web and notifies you if your data is found.

What are some common doxxing techniques, and how do they work?

A doxxer’s job can be as simple as scrolling through your socials. More experienced doxxers can use advanced techniques, such as cyberstalking, packet sniffing, IP logging, reverse mobile phone lookups, and phishing to uncover private information about their targets.

Here’s a breakdown of what these doxxing techniques are and how they work:

• Cyberstalking: Cyberstalkers may peruse your social media posts to find personal details like your birth date, hometown, relationship status, phone number, educational updates, work history, or more.
• Packet sniffing: Hackers can use a packet sniffer to crack the security of a network and intercept the data and private information flowing through it, like account passwords and credit card numbers. 
• IP logging: A hacker can use code or an online application to uncover your IP address, find your physical address, or deduce information about your online behavior. 
• Reverse mobile phone lookup: Reverse phone lookup services can help doxxers find your name and other personal information by entering a phone number into a database. 
• Phishing: By leveraging a fictitious business, persona, or scenario, phishers can trick targets into clicking malicious links that allow them to access their target’s device and the personal information stored on it.

As you can see, doxxers have several tools and tactics to find private information. 

Keep yourself safer from the dangers of doxxing

An estimated 11 million people say they’ve been doxxed, and 90% of web users are worried it will happen to them. You don’t have to be one of them.

Norton 360 Deluxe combines advanced tools to help safeguard your personal information and secure your online presence. With an ironclad VPN to hide your location and Dark Web Monitoring to alert you if your personal information is found on the dark web, Norton helps you take control of your digital footprint.

FAQs

How did doxxing start?

The concept of doxxing arose in the early 1990s in an offline context, following a doxxing attack on a U.K. organisation focused on improving race relations. Initially dubbed “dropping docs,” this concept soon found its way online and evolved into “dropping dox,” or just “doxxing,” which is now a common strategy for cyberbullying and harassment. 

What is consensual doxxing?

In consensual doxxing, the person being doxxed agrees to let someone find and disclose their information for a specific purpose or scenario — often for training. Consensual doxxing has also become a trend on TikTok, with users challenging pro sleuths and doxxers to uncover private details like their address or age using only the information they have posted online for entertainment. 

How can I tell if I’ve been doxxed?

The most common way to discover if you’ve been doxxed is if you start to notice the consequences. However, you can also find out if someone is leaking your private details by:

• Searching your name online 
• Checking social media
• Taking notice of calls and messages from people you don’t know
• Investigating possible data breaches
• Using a service like Norton 360 Deluxe, which monitors the dark web and notifies you when it finds your data