Doxing Is Illegal In Texas And You Just Might Be Doing It

If you don't fully understand what doxing is or what is considered doxing, you may be doing it. Whether you do it intentionally or not, it's illegal in Texas.

Doxing is a slang term applied to the spreading of private information about people and/or organizations via the internet. Well mostly via the internet.

Making private information public without the permission of whoever is involved in any manner is illegal, internet or not.

WHAT DOXING MEANS

It comes from the way we have pretty much all come to refer to documents ... docs. Exposing private info became known as "docs-ing" which makes the "C" sound like an "X". Hence, "doxing".

You would think that most people would know better than to do this and would also understand the legal issues regarding it. Thing is, some fairly innocent things could classify as doxing.

Like posting personal pictures of someone. If you take a pic from a social media site or the internet and post it for any reason ... to identify a thief or to congratulate a hero ... you're, technically, "doxing".

HOW DOXING IS DONE

Same goes for posting someone's address or place of employment. I see stuff like this online all the time:

"Don't buy anything from Dave Smith at The Market on 1st street, he's a con artist" contains his name and place of employment. 2 counts of doxing plus the con artist accusation could also spark legal drama.

DEFINITION OF DOXING

Doxing, according to versustexas.com, is:

Releasing personal photos of an individual
Posting an individual’s phone number or address on the Internet
Releasing information about an individual’s family, work or other private information
Encouraging others to use released information to harass an individual

This is such a new thing that the law regarding it is still developing. At the moment, there isn't a "doxing" charge on the books.

You can be charged with other things though, such as stalking, harassment and cyberbullying. There are many things doxing can lead to and some are felonies.

Soooo, be careful what you post ... doxing is a slippery slope.