Doxing is one of those new terms that have evolved with the information age. It comes from a combination of the words “dropping” and “documents” (or “docs” for short) meaning to release information about someone. Basically, it’s just another form of cyber crime.
Doxing is clearly something that can affect anyone because of the ease of access to our information. But there are things you can do to protect yourself.
- Scrub your social media accounts. That is, make sure not to include too much identifiable information such as your home address, phone number, or date of birth.
- To opt-out (or remove) your personal information from those sites that collect and publish personal information (such as BeenVerified, Intelius, Peoplefinders, Spokeo, Truthfinder, Whitepages, and more):
- First, create a new email address that you can use for opting out of these sites. (They will often require confirmation of your desire to opt-out by sending an email to you. You do not want to provide your usual email address.) If a site requires a phone number in order to confirm removal, consider getting a temporary number (e.g., a prepaid phone).
- Once you have an “opt-out” email set up (and temporary phone number if necessary), go to the sites in the link below and follow the instructions for removing your information. Since these sites often repopulate their data from various sources, you should repeat this process periodically to ensure your information is not published.