Doxing
Doxing is the process of finding personal information about a person, group, organization, or corporation for the purpose of publishing it online. The result of doxing is called a dox.
Doxing is usually done with the intent to harm someone, often as revenge. It is frequently an attempt to humiliate, expose, and/or punish an individual. Doxing is illegal in many countries.
History
Doxing dates back to the 1980s and 1990s. Black-hat hackers and penetration testers of the time used it to silence and/or intimate their hacker rivals in the Bulletin Board Systems (BBS) and Internet communities.
Effects
Doxing is a form of vigilantism. There have been many instances where people who were doxed experienced years of harassment, were victims of swatting, had to change their phone numbers, and/or had to move out of their homes.
In the present day, specifically in the United States, doxing is used as a method of political attack.
Being doxed makes a person more vulnerable to identity theft.
