Doxing is the practice of posting someone's  personal information online without their consent.

The word first emerged in the world of online  hackers in the 1990s, where anonymity was deemed  

sacred. A feud between hackers might  escalate when someone decided to "drop  

docs" on somebody else — that is,  post documents revealing the legal  

name of a person who had only been  known by an alias up to that point.

"Docs" became "dox," which in turn lost  the "drop" and became a verb by itself.

Modern-day doxers aim to reveal information that  can move their conflict with their targets from  

the internet to the real world, including home  addresses, employers, social security numbers,  

private correspondence, and criminal history  or otherwise embarrassing personal details.

The goals range from intimidating or humiliating  victims, causing a loss of employment or breaking  

off of relationships, or making the target  a victim of in-person harassment or assault.

Is doxing illegal?

The prospect of someone posting your home  address for anyone on the internet to see  

is pretty scary to most people, and you  may assume that it can't possibly be legal.

Indeed, Federal law restricts the  publication of personal information about  

certain categories of people, including state or  federal employees or officers as well as jurors,  

witnesses, or informants in trials or criminal  investigations. If the doxing is part of a larger  

campaign of harassment, victims who don't  fall into those categories may be able to  

press charges based on state or federal stalking  legislation or file a civil suit for damages.

In many cases, doxers can piece together  bits of information that their targets  

have posted in public view or hinted at on  social media. Collating that information or  

drawing people's attention to it isn't  illegal, as intrusive as it might feel.

And, if the doxer knows your legal name, a  surprising amount of information about you is a  

matter of public record: your voter registration,  property records, marriage and divorce records,  

mug shots, and more. These details aren't  necessarily just a Google search away,  

but they can be obtained from government  agencies readily enough, often at low to no cost.

The quickest route to finding and weaponizing  personal information about a target may be to  

simply buy it, whether from legal data brokers  or from databases passed around on the dark web  

derived from the innumerable data breaches  that afflict companies large and small. If  

a doxer can connect their target's name, email  address, or social media handle with a record  

in one of those databases, they can get a wealth  of information that can then be posted publicly.

There are even paid doxing as  a service outfits out there.

Getting legal relief against doxers can be  difficult: it's often not clear what laws they're  

breaking, and they usually take steps to obscure  their own identity even as they expose yours.

The bright spot: Doxing violates the terms  of service of most social media platforms. 

Reporting tweets or Facebook posts  that include your personal information  

will generally get them swiftly taken  down and the offending user suspended.