Doxxing
Also called doxing, doxxed
Finding and publishing someone's private details, such as home address, workplace or phone number, to harass or frighten them.
Doxxing turns online anger into offline danger. Someone digs up where a person lives or works, often by piecing together small public clues, and posts it so others can turn up, call or threaten.
AI has made the digging easier. When OpenAI's o3 model arrived, people found it could study a photo (a menu, a street, a view from a window), zoom in on tiny details and work out where it was taken, without any location data in the file. Privacy experts pointed out that the same trick works on a stranger's Instagram story.
Most of the defence is in what you share. Think about what your photos and posts reveal together, check who can see them, and clear old details from search results where the law lets you.
For example
After an argument online, a stranger posts someone's street address, worked out from the view in a selfie.
Put it to use
Where you'll meet doxxing in ChatGPT, Gemini and Claude, how to use it there, and the mix-up most people make.
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