Wordology, Dox

Here is an interesting word that has been floating around the web for the past bunch of years. Doxing or doxxing, from abbreviating the word documents, is an Internet-based practice of researching and broadcasting private or personal identifiable information about an individual or organization. It is usually done to humiliate or expose someone.


Doxing is the act of finding one's personal information through research and discovery, with little to no information to start with. You may have seen doxing in the news, for instance when not so long ago, hacker team Anonymous doxed and reported thousands of twitter accounts related to ISIS.

Doxxing is easy to accomplish using common internet sites. Social media, phone number databases, housing information, etc., are all readily and freely available. Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, and Google+, etc. are treasure troves of personal information, such as relatives, friends, coworkers, pictures, nicknames, employer name, job title, school information, addresses, and much more.

Hackers, police officers, and amateur detectives can harvest the information from the internet about individuals. There is no particular structure in place for doxing, meaning a hacker may seek out any kind of information related to the target.