Doxing
There are many reasons for people to remain anonymous. They might want to share information about themselves that they don’t want their social circle to know. This can include embarrassing stories, political and religious views, health issues etc. The anonymity depends on the social platform they are using. Facebook, for instance, wants its user to have their identity revealed, whereas 4chan wants its users to remain anonymous. And most platforms reside between these two.
Doxing is the act of providing internet someone’s information which can be used to identify them. This is a very problematic issue, because there are malicious people all around the world. Doxed people can be subject to harassment, fake food deliveries, fake signups etc. This can be so detrimental to victim that some people committed suicide after being doxed and receiving threats all the time.
Social platforms can take measures to decrease chances of doxing. Removal of sensitive metadata from uploaded files is one way of doing it. They can warn users if they attempt to share a phone number, address etc. (not necessarily belonging to someone). However, these measures can not always prevent sharing of personally identifiable information. It is up to people to decide what to share. Therefore, one must always be careful about the content they put online. People that are not accustomed to internet, such as children and elderly, are more likely to be victims of doxing. Hence, it is important raise awareness about this issue. Anti-doxing services aim to educate people about this issue.
Some countries have made changes in their legal code to punish doxers. Some of these countries are China, USA, Spain, and South Korea. This will surely discourage ill-intended people from doxing someone. However, there is a caveat. People might dox someone without any malign intentions. The ones that that are prone to doxing can dox someone as well. Think of this scenario. A Facebook mom posts a comment on a pizza company’s post, saying: “Hi!, this is XXX. We ordered pizza to my daughter’s house but it hasn’t arrived yet. The address is XXX. Is it on the way?”. This scenario does not sound unlikely. Thus, educating people about doxing must be the top priority to prevent doxing.
