Doxxing Meaning: Why is it called doxxing?

Doxing (sometimes spelt doxxing) is a type of online harassment that entails discovering someone’s personal information such as their real name, address, employment, or other identifying information and exposing it publicly, usually on the internet.

Doxing occurs without the victim’s knowledge or consent, to expose information that should be kept private.

The term “doxing” is derived from word documents. The phrase was simplified to “docs” and subsequently “dox” in 1990s hacker culture, with “dropping dox” referring to collecting personal papers or information and releasing it online. Anonymous, a hacking collective, helped popularise the word.

Some doxing attacks are driven by harassment or retaliation, while others target those who anonymously publish discriminatory comments online or are caught on camera promoting such beliefs.

While the concept of doxing has been around for decades, it is still very much alive and well and it can be quite harmful, especially as it gets more common. Once a person’s physical address, employment location, phone number, email address, or other contact information is public, they can become an easy target.

Doxers use a variety of tactics to gather information on their targets. They can use your IP address to access your social media profiles, acquire data from data brokers, conduct phishing attacks, and even intercept internet traffic.