Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

That's not what doxxing is. This is a privacy breach. Doxxing is taking an anonymous user account and turning it in to a real person.

A pertinent example of doxxing is what the FBI did to linking DPR to Ross Ulbricht due to the mistake he made on a bulletin board.



Dox -> documents -> publishing personal information, no?

Why does the victim have to be anonymous?


In modern usage of the term they don't. The term originated in underground circles where anonymity by all participants was assumed, and where there were probably legal or criminal revenge consequences for tying a pseudonym to a real identity.

Kind of like how troll now means 'person who is an asshole on the internet' instead of 'post designed to rile up and elicit frivolous responses'. The meaning has changed over time for better or worse.


I don't know, even Wikipedia seems to agree with me.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doxing

And didn't the GGers "dox" Randi, Anita, Brianna, etc?

But I'm even more old school because I'd just call it skiptracing instead of doxing....


You're ignoring the bits of that article you don't like:

Essentially, doxing is revealing and releasing records of an individual, which were previously private, to the public.

Where's the "reveal" in this hack? They'll use the hacked info privately or sell it.


What are you talking about? I never said this was "doxing"; I know there was no reveal. I was referring to the definition of "doxing" which I felt didn't fit.

Did you read the comments completely? If Randi, Anita, and Brianna weren't anonymous but they were "doxed" it seems to me that "doxing" doesn't have to refer to revealing info of an anonymous person.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: