WHAT IF?

George Orwell was right — invasion of our private lives is becoming a greater threat with each passing decade. Even if it’s not being used by Big Brother’s totalitarian regime, our sensitive information is increasingly accessible to unscrupulous corporations, cybercriminals, and anonymous strangers who know where to look. According to Wikipedia, “Doxing or doxxing is the act of publicly revealing previously private personal information about an individual or organization, usually through the Internet.” It’s an increasingly common act of intimidation and an exposure meant to enable complete strangers to actively engage in harming you.

In 2012, an interactive map was posted online showing the names and addresses of New York handgun permit holders in Westchester and Rockland counties. Was this freedom of the press or potentially endangering people? Whether those gun owners like it or not, their info is now exposed, even if the post is deleted.

The list of similar situations goes on. From the dentist who shot Cecil the Lion, the Ashley Madison data breach, or celebrities Tweeting out the home addresses of people they don’t like, one thing is for certain — the more information you have online, the greater the risk of it being used against you. If you were part of a group that’s becoming increasingly stigmatized — and you may already be without knowing it — how can you protect yourself from the prying eyes of the outrage culture zealots who mean to harm you?

The Scenario:

SITUATION TYPE

You’re being doxed

YOUR CREW

You, your wife, and your children

LOCATION

Your hometown

SEASON

Autumn

WEATHER

Normal

The Setup: Imagine you attended a city council meeting to express your concern about the side effects of a growing homeless population in your area. You plan to voice concern for your family’s safety after witnessing an increase in drug sales, sexual assaults, and public defecation. This meeting is packed with people on both sides of the issue. Some activists who attended this meeting did so in an effort to retaliate against residents who were speaking out against the homeless problem. While attending, they photographed attendees, got names and addresses off the sign-in list, and used public social media posts and press photos to identify the key participants in the meeting.

Also, an online petition appearing to solicit residents to push for legislation that imposes tougher penalties against homelessness had recently been started. By the time the petition had reached several thousand signatures, including your own, it was determined that everyone who’d signed up had been catfished. The fake petition was actually started by a selfproclaimed social justice blog that published all