This week, we are talking about Doxxing. What is doxxing in gaming? Doxxing can have very dangerous consequences and can cause a lot of harm for the victim.
What is Doxxing in gaming?
First let’s start out by defining what doxxing is. Doxxing is a threat on your privacy. This is when someone researches the details of someone’s life on the internet to gather as much personal and private information as they can. The goal of retaining this information is to then use it publicly to shame, embarrass, criticize or cause physical harm on the individual. Doxxing can cause serious harm on an individual both on emotionally and physically.
Doxxing or doxing comes from the term documents, that was shortened to docs and then dox. This is in reference to the documents that are found and then used against someone. In my house, I frequently hear the term, “doxed”. Statements like, “my friends doxed me” or “they always dox people” are heard coming from my pre-teen. This means that they shared their personal information in the group.
Why do people Dox?
While there are different types of doxxing, hostile doxing and non-hostile doxxing, the main reason people dox is for revenge. They are ultimately using your personal information and anything else about you that you do not want made public and using it as a weapon against you. The more there is to find, the more dangerous and harmful it can be.
How to deal with doxxing?
- Ensure that all of your accounts are set to the highest security setting.
- Be careful what you post about yourself and your children. For example, what school they go to, where you live and where you work.
- Be careful not to use public wifi hotspots.
- Use different passwords and usernames on different sites.
- Be mindful about the information that you share online.