Difference between revisions of "Doxxing"
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=== Delegitimizing === | === Delegitimizing === | ||
− | Delegitimizing doxxing reveals information about a victim that could be used to personally slander or harm their reputation. In many cases, it is used for the intent to diminish the victim’s credibility since information released tends to be controversial or confidential information that the public should not see. | + | Delegitimizing doxxing reveals information about a victim's actions that could be used to personally slander or harm their reputation. In many cases, it is used for the intent to diminish the victim’s credibility since information released tends to be controversial or confidential information that the public should not see. |
=== SWATTING === | === SWATTING === |
Revision as of 14:28, 14 April 2019
Doxxing, also spelled doxing, is the act of releasing or publishing of an individual’s personal information, usually without the knowledge or consent of the victim.[1] The act is often done intentionally to reveal the identity of a person who usually prefers to remain anonymous. Personal information includes but is not limited to: an individual’s real name, address, workplace, phone number or other personal information one does not wish to share.[2] There are a variety of ways to acquire this information, such as social media, the use of online data brokers and any other public record available. Doxxing has become more popular with the rise of technology and the increased accessibility to public information. While the information that is released about the victim is usually already publicly available, doxxing can make the information readily available to those who wish to threaten or harm the victim.[3] The various consequences of doxxing ranges from loss of anonymity and privacy to harassment in the form of defaming, as well as slandering, raising many ethical concerns.Contents
Background
The word doxxing comes from the word “docs” in reference to that in many cases, documents are released in order to remove anonymity. [4] Doxxing initially started around the early 2000s when social media started to become popular and Internet users began posting information about themselves. [5] Social media and increased accessibility to public records have both played a large part in increasing the frequency and severity of this issue. A doxxer can typically use a small amount of information, such as an email address or part of a name, to trace another online user to other social media accounts and platforms. Once the information is put all together, it is leaked online for the public to see, taking away not only the user’s anonymity but their right to privacy. Anonymity also plays a large role in the participation of doxxing, as more people feel safe participating in this form of online harassment since they themselves are protected by anonymity.
Types of Doxxing[6]
Deanonymization
Deanonymization doxxing is the revealing of a person’s true identity that was previously anonymous. This form of doxxing deals with a loss of anonymity within the victim as they no longer have the option to remain anonymous or not. This may cause harm to a victim because they may have chosen to remain anonymous as their work could cause danger to themselves or their loved ones. In this category of doxxing the information being released could be positively justified because of the ramifications of disclosing to person's identity to the public would be positive.
Targeting
Targeting doxxing is when doxxers release physical personal information such as home addresses or place of work that allows anyone to locate their victims. This form of doxxing removes the obscurity of victims by leaving them more vulnerable to various forms of harassment such as swatting or unwanted deliveries placed in the victim’s name. This removal of obscurity is achieved through revealing knowledge known about an individual rather than reflying solely on public recorded data. Many times, deanonymizing targeting doxxing are used together since deanonymization makes it easier to find more personal and identifiable information about a victim leading them to be more vulnerable to harassment.
Delegitimizing
Delegitimizing doxxing reveals information about a victim's actions that could be used to personally slander or harm their reputation. In many cases, it is used for the intent to diminish the victim’s credibility since information released tends to be controversial or confidential information that the public should not see.
SWATTING
SWATTING is one form of doxxing where the instigator poses as an individual and performs a violent or otherwise harmful action under that individual's name. Examples of SWATTING include calling in a mass shooting threat, a bombing threat, and a variety of other acts of terrorism. In the process, the instigator shares the contact and location information of the victim so that a literal SWAT team arrives at the victim's place of residence.
Common Doxxing Techniques
Given Google's readily available bank of indexable information, one of the most common ways and starting points for people looking to doxx someone is a simple Google search. This step could give all the information that is needed, including the name of the victim, contact information, photographs, home address, and workplace. If not all that is needed is found, it can at least provide where to look next, whether it be their company list of employees, or other social media accounts that may contain the remaining information.
Another commonly used method for doxxing is the "reverse cellphone lookup" technique, where the attacker can gain access to personal information such as name, home address, and others by using their cellphone number. The same technique can be applied vice versa.[7]
Arguably most intrusive of doxxing techniques is IP address lookup. Through this technique, the attacker could potentially identify the victim's identity, as well as their home and/or work location. Since a personal IP address is commonly attributed to a personal device, such as a laptop, it can not only act as a location beacon on the Internet but also the physical world. All of these methods are technically legal.[8]
Examples of Doxxing
Kyle Quinn
In the summer of 2017, a white nationalist protest occurred in Charlottesville, North Carolina. As pictures of protestors holding tiki torches and marching circulated throughout the internet, Kyle Quinn, who worked at the Engineering Research Center at Arkansas University was misidentified as one of the protestors that wore an Arkansas Engineering shirt and had similar body and facial features. Once accused of participating in the rally, Quinn was doxxed, having his name, home address and phone number released to the public.[9] He received countless threats and accusations claiming that he was racist while many demanded that he’d be fired from the University. Kyle Quinn had actually been enjoying a night with his wife and colleague visiting a local art gallery. Quinn was lucky enough to have his name cleared but is now known for his case of misidentification instead of his research.[10]Gamergate
Gamergate is a controversy that occurred in August 2014 after Zoe Quinn, a female video game creator, released a video game Depression Quest. She started to receive backlash after her ex-boyfriend posted screenshots of their Facebook messenger conversations stating that Quinn participated in sexual relations with the journalist who reviewed her games raising a question of journalism ethics. The campaign #gamergate started as a result of these suspicions leading to the doxxing and harassment of Quinn. Her life was threatened, and she received threats of rape once her personal information was leaked online.[11] Other women who stepped up to support Quinn, or stated their own opinion during the time Gamergate was on the rise were also doxed online.
Anonymous
Anonymous is an active group of hacktivist that frequently uses doxxing in order to combat censorship and promote freedom of speech.[12] The group hacks personal emails, government websites or gathers personal information about their victims to release online to the public.[13]
In December 2011, Anonymous hacked Stratfor Global Intelligence Service, an American geopolitical intelligence platform, and released their confidential client list to the public. Included on the list were the clients' email addresses and credit card information. Notable clients included Bank of America, the Defense Department, Doctors without Borders and the United Nations.[14]
Justine Sacco
Communications director Justine Sacco sparked controversy on Twitter when she tweeted, "Going to Africa. Hope I don't get AIDS. Just kidding. I'm white! [15]" Within the duration of her flight from London to South Africa, Justine Sacco's identity was breached online almost immediately after sending her tweet. The power of social media took Justine Sacco, a Twitter user with only 170 followers, to the number one Twitter trend without her knowing it due to her flight. The hashtag read "#HasJustineLandedYet" as Twitter users across the country gathered to check the updates on Sacco's employment after the company she held a management position at, IAC, informed the public of her traveling status.[16] Angry users even showed up at the airport and tweeted a picture of her arriving to update the users following the hashtag.
Ethical Implications
Anonymity
Anonymity is an important value of the internet that many users hold dear. Not only does it allow users to post freely without revealing who they are, it allows them to control their accessibility to other; meaning, as Ruth Gavinson claims, “the extent that they are known to others, the extent to which other has physical access to them and the extent to which they are the subject to others’ attention”.[17] Anonymity allows users to limit the extent to which they are known to others by controlling what information about themselves they choose to disclose. With doxxing, users, now turned victims, no longer control information that is important or private to them, reducing their ability to decide what to reveal and who to reveal it to.[6] Doxxers take away their victims’ rights to anonymity resulting in a loss of their identity.
Privacy
While anonymity allows actions to be seen while maintaining a private identity, privacy controls who sees the information posted online. This means anyone can see who posts information online, but the owner of the information can control who sees it.[18] Privacy means that one is entitled to the information that they post online and views it. Doxxers break their victims right to privacy by releasing personally identifiable information they chose to privately disclose to the public. This breach of privacy raises ethical concerns since doxxers are using personal information in unlawful ways in order to prevent their victims from continuing some form of action they are opposed to.[19]
Harassment
When doxxing occurs, doxxers release personal information about their victims which can include links to their social media accounts, phone numbers, addresses, email address and other ways of contacting them which in many cases, results in the harassment and ridicule of their victims. This harassment not only includes threats of personal harm, death, and harm to loved ones. As in the case of gamergate, doxxers provided enraged gamers with the means to contact Zoe Quinn resulting in death, rape threats and the public questioning of her ethical morals. Another form of harassment that is very common with doxxing is swatting. Swatting occurs when emergency services are called to the home of a victim with a report of a serious crime such as murder or a kidnapping.[20] Many of these forms of harassment raise the controversy surround civils rights versus freedom of speech. It is hard to determine what are actual threats to a person’s safety or empty, annoying online comments blurring the line between imminent danger or mean comments.[21]
How to Prevent Doxxing[22]
- Be aware and limit the amount of information that you share online. Sharing even small information such as your name, birthday or email address can be used to find other, more identifiable and personal information.
- Never shares identifiable information on public forums or to a stranger.
- Review the privacy settings on your social media and online accounts regularly. Consistently checking your privacy settings allows you to ensure that you are not sharing more information that you do not intend to.
- Use a variety of usernames. Using the same username across many different platforms makes it easier for doxxers to find your information and connect all your accounts together.
- Using a VPN or proxy server to encrypt your data and hide your information from hackers.
See Also
References
- ↑ Stein, Joel. “How Trolls Are Ruining the Internet.” Time, 18 Aug. 2016. http://time.com/4457110/internet-trolls/
- ↑ Synder, Peter. Fifteen Minutes of Unwanted Fame: Detecting and Characterizing Doxing. pp. 1–13, Fifteen Minutes of Unwanted Fame: Detecting and Characterizing Doxing.
- ↑ Hoyt, Alia. “10 Forms of Online Harassment.” How Stuff Works. https://computer.howstuffworks.com/10-forms-online-harassment3.htm
- ↑ Garber, Megan. “Doxing: An Etymology.” The Atlantic, 6 Mar. 2014. https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2014/03/doxing-an-etymology/284283/
- ↑ B, Amanda. “Doxing.” Know Your Meme, 2015. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/doxing
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 Douglas, David M. Doxing: A Conceptual Analysis, vol. 18, no. 3, pp. 199–210. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10676-016-9406-0#Sec2
- ↑ Rao, M. Kameswara, et al. “ABOUT.” GoHacking, www.gohacking.com/what-is-doxing-and-how-it-is-done/.
- ↑ “You'll Be Shocked to See How Your IP Address Gives Away Your Location.” WhatIsMyIPAddress.com, whatismyipaddress.com/find-me.
- ↑ Grens, Kerry. “So You’Ve Been Mistaken as a White Nationalist.” The Scientist, 18 Aug. 2017. https://www.the-scientist.com/daily-news/so-youve-been-mistaken-as-a-white-nationalist-31058
- ↑ Victor, Daniel. “Amateur Sleuths Aim to Identify Charlottesville Marchers, but Sometimes Misfire.” New York Times, 14 Aug. 2017. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/14/us/charlottesville-doxxing.html
- ↑ Massanari, Adrienne. #Gamergate and The Fappening: How Reddit’s Algorithm, Governance, and Culture Support Toxic Technocultures, 2017.
- ↑ Sands, Geneva. “What to Know About the Worldwide Hacker Group ‘Anonymous.’” ABC News, 19 Mar. 2016. https://abcnews.go.com/US/worldwide-hacker-group-anonymous/story?id=37761302
- ↑ Bergal, Jenni. “Hacktivists Launch More Cyberattacks Against Local, State Governments.” PBS News Hour, 10 Jan. 2017. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/hacktivists-launch-cyberattacks-local-state-governments
- ↑ Perlroth, Nicole. “Hackers Breach the Web Site of Stratfor Global Intelligence.” The New York Times, 25 Dec. 2011. https://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/26/technology/hackers-breach-the-web-site-of-stratfor-global-intelligence.html
- ↑ Jon Ronson. "How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco's Life. 12 Feb 2015.
- ↑ Jon Ronson. "How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco's Life. 12 Feb 2015.
- ↑ Gavison, Ruth. Privacy and the Limits of Law, 89, no. 3, Jan. 1980, pp. 421–471.
- ↑ Webb, James. “Anonymity vs Privacy vs Security.” HighSpeed Experts, 17 Jan. 2018. https://highspeedexperts.com/online-security-privacy/anonymity-vs-privacy-vs-security/
- ↑ Norris, Ingrid N. “Mitigating the Effects of Doxxing.” Utica College, 2012, pp. 30–35.
- ↑ Mantilla, Karla. Gendertrolling: How Misogyny Went Viral: How Misogyny Went Viral. https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=kKNZCgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&ots=iNw4DXZeNp&sig=ftjmyWWDIriosTG_X0J8_A0zpZc#v=onepage&q=swatting&f=false
- ↑ Poland, Bailey. Haters: Harassment, Abuse, and Violence Online. Potomac Books, 2016.
- ↑ Collins, Jerri. “Doxing: What It Is and How to Fight It.” Lifewire, 3 Jan. 2019. https://www.lifewire.com/what-is-doxing-4135276