Michel Foucault knew a thing or two about how control works through exposure. He once wrote that “if the prisoner is never sure when he is being observed, he becomes his own guardian.” The right to remain anonymous is one of the principal benefits and freedoms that we have online.
But it is under threat.
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One source of this threat comes from doxing. The term itself emerged from hacker culture in the 1990s. It is the short form of ‘dropping docs’ (i.e. documents), which means to employ a revenge tactic of breaching someone’s personal data (such as phone, credit card details, social media profiles etc.) and publishing it on the web.
In our infographic, we reveal that, in most cases, doxing is perfectly legal yet it can have extremely harmful effects. We highlight the celebrities who have been victims of it but we also emphasise that anyone online can fall prey to it.
Most importantly we tell you what steps you can take to protect yourself from it.
Our anonymity online remains a right we must all fight to protect. It is an essential part of our online freedom.
Read on to find out how the threat of doxing need not turn you into just another ‘docile body’ online, beaten and cowered into submission by the loss of your anonymity.
The original article and infographic can be accessed here:
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