Doxxing - What it is and what it does!

Doxxing
An interesting phenomena that has developed within about the past decade is known as doxxing. Dictionary.com defines the word "dox" to mean to "search for and publish private or identifying information about (a particular individual) on the Internet, typically with malicious intent." It can mean even more than that actually, and we see more examples of it everyday in the media.


A recent example of doxxing appeared following the Charlottesville protests and counter protests in early April of this year. Multiple people who were spotted at the Unite the Right far right rally waving confederate flags and holding torches were later ousted from their jobs and other memberships when they were identified through pictures of them at the rally. 




The New York Times questions the ethics of such online vigilantism techniques, and even quotes certain people as calling passive aggressive violence. They also summarize multiple past doxxing incidents, so I recommend checking the link above. 

What are your thoughts on this? Is there an ethicall issue here? or is it perfectly fine and these people get what they deserve?


The important question is, if the world was mad at you tomorrow- how much information and damage could they do based on what information you have online?!

 UPDATE!

 Within a few weeks of writing this orignal post about doxxing, I had a perfect example of it happen on my facebook feed personally. Take a look at the photo below, as you can see, one user posted another users name and profile with instructions for everyone to "do thier thing". Do you feel this is ok to do someone?






Bowles, N.(2017,August30). How ‘Doxxing’ Became a Mainstream Tool in the Culture Wars.


Retreived September 25, 2017, from hhtps://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/30/technology/doxing-protests.html?mcubz=1



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