Furious in 2017 social media usersmisidentifying Kyle Quinn, an engineering professor, as a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, retaliated against him.

Before long, pictures of him, his home address, the identity of his employer began to circulate on social media, frightening Quinn and his wife, who had taken refuge in a colleague’s house.

Quinn is one of the countless victims of the so-called doxinga form of electronic invasion of a person’s privacy that can lead to catastrophic consequences.

What is doxing?

Doxxing, a term derived from “documents”, short for “docs”, is the malicious targeting of someone on the Internet by deliberately exposing their personal information, apparently without their consent. This includes publishing his phone number, his address, his identification number, personal photos and all those highly personal details that make a person uniquely identifiable and therefore subject to further harassment, humiliation, threats, surveillance.

How and where can this be reported?

Meta, the tech giant that controls Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, among others, does not use the term “doxxing” in its privacy policy, but notes in a statement to CNN that it is considering sharing “personal information” of others. breaking his rules.

The company says it checks all content against its security protocols and has the ability to remove personal information such as a home address that could cause problems for a user if that information is not publicly available through news feeds, press releases or other official sources. .

Who does it affect the most?

While anyone can be a potential victim of doxing, experts believe that women are more likely to be the target of massive online attacks and/or leaks of sensitive material, such as inappropriate content intercepted or shared without their consent.

A 2020 United Nations report focusing on India, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines and South Korea found that women are experiencing many forms of online violence at the same time.

A report by the Economist Intelligence Unit, also from 2020, found that online violence against women is “astoundingly widespread” in all 51 countries sampled.

Is it illegal and punishable?

The possible criminalization of this practice depends on local legislation. For example, in Singapore since 2014, most forms of harassment or harassment, including doxing, are illegal, and offenders face fines of up to $3,800 or jail time of up to six months.

In Indonesia, activists argue, while cases of doxing are on the rise, especially against women human rights defenders and journalists, the term is not known in the country’s legal system, so competent authorities where it is reported are not taken seriously. against time. However, as Damar Juniardo, director of Southeast Asia, a free speech network, a network of digital rights activists, explains, last September a privacy law was passed that penalizes those who use and share the personal information of others without their consent.

There are clear guidelines in the UK, as well as various penalties for dealing with cases such as online violence against women and girls, which include threats to post personal information on social media, as well as revealing sexual content without their consent.

In the United States, measures to combat this phenomenon vary by state. Last year, Nevada passed a law banning doxing and allowing victims to file lawsuits against perpetrators. In California, cyber-harassment, including doxing, is punishable by up to a year in prison, a fine of more than $1,000, or both.

In 2021, Hong Kong authorities amended the relevant data protection law to include doxing, with violators facing jail terms of more than five years and a fine of more than $129,000.

How can you protect yourself?

Although the primary responsibility for preventing doxing lies with the potential abuser, not the victim, there are some measures that can make this task more difficult.

On the one hand, Internet users should be aware of the protection policies of the social media platforms they use, as well as how to report possible harassment.

In addition, they may restrict access to their highly personal data, making it difficult for them to be online.

For example, it is useful to determine who can see our personal email, phone number, home or work address, and other personal information on our social media accounts.

As experts recommend, we should avoid discussing our personal information that could be used to identify and target us. But also have a strong password – ideally at least 16 characters long, made up of letters, numbers, uppercase and lowercase letters, symbols, and punctuation – and different for each of our personal accounts.

Source: CNN