Glossary · Doxxing

Doxxing

The malicious public release of a private individual's identifying information — home address, phone number, family details — typically to enable harassment.

Full Definition

Doxxing is the deliberate exposure of private personal information about a person who either uses a pseudonym online or maintains a low public profile. The term originated in 1990s hacker culture ("dropping docs") and now spans a much broader set of behaviors: exposing the real name of an anonymous account, publishing a target's home address, posting their family members' names and schools, or sharing their workplace. Doxxing is increasingly weaponised in coordinated attacks on executives, public figures, and crypto founders. It's typically illegal in most jurisdictions when paired with intent to threaten, but enforcement is uneven and the damage — physical security risk, family exposure, employer pressure — is immediate. A serious response to doxxing pairs digital takedowns (DMCA, platform reports, scraper removal) with security coordination (physical protection, family relocation if needed) and legal escalation (cease-and-desist, criminal complaints in cooperative jurisdictions).

In practice

  • An anonymous Twitter account critical of a corporate controversy is doxxed by an opposing community; the response involves coordinating with the platform's trust-and-safety team, pursuing platform-level removal of the dox, and protecting the family.
  • A crypto founder's home address is published on a Telegram channel after a protocol exploit. Response includes immediate physical security, jurisdictional legal filings, and platform takedowns.

Also known as

doxing · personal data exposure