3 ms·

No, doxxing is the release of private information. That's the universally understood meaning of the term, and the only useful one. If you want to redefine the

No, doxxing is the release of private information. That's the universally understood meaning of the term, and the only useful one. If you want to redefine the term to pertain to public information, then the term is no longer useful. It's just "displaying public information" at that point.

fshbbdssbbgdd 6y ago
The canonical dox is posting someone’s name and address. If that’s not doxxing, the word has no meaning.
- JumpCrisscross 6y ago
  > canonical dox is posting someone’s name and address Posting a pseudonymous person’s name and address divulges private information: the real person behind the pseudonym. Posting a public official’s name and address isn’t doxxing.
- ipaddr 6y ago
  Like saying Bidan lives at the white house? Stating public information actually very public in this case isn't doxing.
jasonfarnon 6y ago
"and the only useful one" Actually this is a useless definition, because what constitutes "private information" is exactly at issue
- nate_meurer 6y ago
  In exactly what way is information available in public government databases considered private. Please be specific. Regardless of your definition of public, the word doxxing has never covered it. We have plenty of other language to refer to the sharing of publicly available information. The word doxxing was coined to give a name to a type of invasion of privacy that came to prominence with the rise of the Internet. If you want doxxing to just mean gossip, then your word no longer has a useful and distinct meaning.
  - krainboltgreene 6y ago
    If I didn't consent to that data to be stored in a public government database.
    - nate_meurer 6y ago
      Your consent is irrelevant here. The information is still publicly available to anyone who wants to look. You can make the case that this data should be private, and I might agree, but that doesn't change the fact that it is currently public, hence there is nothing to be "revealed" or "doxxed". The information is already out there, in public, easy to find.
    - rayiner 6y ago
      Real property transactions are public by operation of law. It’s been that way for literally hundreds of years.
      - krainboltgreene 6y ago
        But I didn't consent to it existing in a second database: Twitter.
  - antiterra 6y ago
    ‘Doxing is an effective tool for bad actors, because the internet can cough up a shocking amount of publicly available information about practically anyone.’ - https://www.wired.com/story/what-do-to-if-you-are-being-doxed/ https://www.wired.com/story/what-do-to-if-you-are-being-doxe... ‘While doxers sometimes use hacking or deception to uncover personal details about their targets, contrary to popular belief “most of the info is public,” according to one researcher who has spent years studying and participating in the practice of doxing.’ — https://www.dailydot.com/debug/dox-doxing-protection-how-to/ https://www.dailydot.com/debug/dox-doxing-protection-how-to/ The vast majority of doxxing does not require unauthorized access, social engineering or betrayal by an affiliated person. Instead, it’s almost always connecting dots between openly available bits of information and then packaging that information so as to direct and simplify harassment. https://helgesverre.com/blog/how-to-dox/ https://helgesverre.com/blog/how-to-dox/
antiterra 6y ago
I think there are multiple social media sites that consider giving addresses and personal information to be ‘doxxing’ regardless of whether or not the info was found in public databases. Twitter, Wikipedia and Reddit being examples.
- nate_meurer 6y ago
  No, nope, and no again. Here's Reddit's definition: "Doxxing is where a user publishes private or identifying information about (a particular individual) on the Internet, typically with malicious intent." [1] Twitter's: "Sharing someone’s private information online without their permission, sometimes called doxxing, is a breach of their privacy and of the Twitter Rules." [2] And Wikipedia's: "Doxing or doxxing is the act of publicly revealing previously private personal information about an individual or organization, usually through the Internet" [3] 1 - https://www.reddit.com/r/modguide/comments/e6nl5o/doxxing/ https://www.reddit.com/r/modguide/comments/e6nl5o/doxxing/ 2 - https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/personal-information https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/personal-info... 3 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doxing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doxing
  - krainboltgreene 6y ago
    The reddit one you quoted is exactly what the parent is talking about: > publishes private or identifying information
    - nate_meurer 6y ago
      No, those aren't the same thing at all, and this is made obvious by the examples they give on that page. "Identifying information" refers to revealing the true identity of a pseudonymous user on the site (e.g., violentacrez), or a person who has no previous association with the site (e.g., Sunil Tripathi). In these cases the perpetrators used information that was known only to them, or that the "public" had no easy access to, or that the "public" didn't even know existed until the perpetrators brought it to their attention.

fshbbdssbbgdd 6y ago

The canonical dox is posting someone’s name and address. If that’s not doxxing, the word has no meaning.

JumpCrisscross 6y ago
> canonical dox is posting someone’s name and address Posting a pseudonymous person’s name and address divulges private information: the real person behind the pseudonym. Posting a public official’s name and address isn’t doxxing.
ipaddr 6y ago
Like saying Bidan lives at the white house? Stating public information actually very public in this case isn't doxing.

jasonfarnon 6y ago

"and the only useful one" Actually this is a useless definition, because what constitutes "private information" is exactly at issue

nate_meurer 6y ago
In exactly what way is information available in public government databases considered private. Please be specific. Regardless of your definition of public, the word doxxing has never covered it. We have plenty of other language to refer to the sharing of publicly available information. The word doxxing was coined to give a name to a type of invasion of privacy that came to prominence with the rise of the Internet. If you want doxxing to just mean gossip, then your word no longer has a useful and distinct meaning.
- krainboltgreene 6y ago
  If I didn't consent to that data to be stored in a public government database.
  - nate_meurer 6y ago
    Your consent is irrelevant here. The information is still publicly available to anyone who wants to look. You can make the case that this data should be private, and I might agree, but that doesn't change the fact that it is currently public, hence there is nothing to be "revealed" or "doxxed". The information is already out there, in public, easy to find.
  - rayiner 6y ago
    Real property transactions are public by operation of law. It’s been that way for literally hundreds of years.
    - krainboltgreene 6y ago
      But I didn't consent to it existing in a second database: Twitter.
- antiterra 6y ago
  ‘Doxing is an effective tool for bad actors, because the internet can cough up a shocking amount of publicly available information about practically anyone.’ - https://www.wired.com/story/what-do-to-if-you-are-being-doxed/ https://www.wired.com/story/what-do-to-if-you-are-being-doxe... ‘While doxers sometimes use hacking or deception to uncover personal details about their targets, contrary to popular belief “most of the info is public,” according to one researcher who has spent years studying and participating in the practice of doxing.’ — https://www.dailydot.com/debug/dox-doxing-protection-how-to/ https://www.dailydot.com/debug/dox-doxing-protection-how-to/ The vast majority of doxxing does not require unauthorized access, social engineering or betrayal by an affiliated person. Instead, it’s almost always connecting dots between openly available bits of information and then packaging that information so as to direct and simplify harassment. https://helgesverre.com/blog/how-to-dox/ https://helgesverre.com/blog/how-to-dox/

antiterra 6y ago

I think there are multiple social media sites that consider giving addresses and personal information to be ‘doxxing’ regardless of whether or not the info was found in public databases. Twitter, Wikipedia and Reddit being examples.

nate_meurer 6y ago
No, nope, and no again. Here's Reddit's definition: "Doxxing is where a user publishes private or identifying information about (a particular individual) on the Internet, typically with malicious intent." [1] Twitter's: "Sharing someone’s private information online without their permission, sometimes called doxxing, is a breach of their privacy and of the Twitter Rules." [2] And Wikipedia's: "Doxing or doxxing is the act of publicly revealing previously private personal information about an individual or organization, usually through the Internet" [3] 1 - https://www.reddit.com/r/modguide/comments/e6nl5o/doxxing/ https://www.reddit.com/r/modguide/comments/e6nl5o/doxxing/ 2 - https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/personal-information https://help.twitter.com/en/rules-and-policies/personal-info... 3 - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doxing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doxing
- krainboltgreene 6y ago
  The reddit one you quoted is exactly what the parent is talking about: > publishes private or identifying information
  - nate_meurer 6y ago
    No, those aren't the same thing at all, and this is made obvious by the examples they give on that page. "Identifying information" refers to revealing the true identity of a pseudonymous user on the site (e.g., violentacrez), or a person who has no previous association with the site (e.g., Sunil Tripathi). In these cases the perpetrators used information that was known only to them, or that the "public" had no easy access to, or that the "public" didn't even know existed until the perpetrators brought it to their attention.