What to do if you’ve been doxed or placed on a watchlist

If you are in immediate physical danger, consider calling 911 (if you feel comfortable doing so) and go to a place where you feel more physically secure.

What is doxxing?

The publishing of personal identifiable information (PII) online—such as a home address, email, or phone number—without consent in order to harass, intimidate, extort, etc.

How do I know if I’ve been doxed or placed on a watchlist?

You may see your name and PII circulating on social media, websites, or watchlists; receive an influx of abusive and threatening emails, calls, texts, social media messages, and/or physical mail; and/or see or hear about people showing up at your home, work, or events.

If I’ve been doxed or added to a watchlist, how long will it last?

Being doxed or placed on a watchlist can spark a targeted harassment campaign, which is usually especially intense for 3–7 days before the storm blows over. However, there may be flare ups later on if, for example, your name reappears on a list or you speak out.

What can I do to protect myself and my family?

Doxing and harassment can be frightening, overwhelming, and traumatizing. It’s totally normal to have a fight, flight, or freeze response—or cycle through all three. Below we map out: 1) steps you can take right away, and 2) steps you can chip away at to build resilience longer term.

WHERE TO START

✅ Center yourself.

• Take a moment to ground yourself with deep breathing, physical movement, or whatever technique works best for you. This will help you take action more effectively.
• If your anxiety starts rising, take breaks and ground yourself again before continuing.
• Get support from trusted contacts (more on that below).

✅ Secure your physical safety.

• Ask yourself if you feel physically unsafe because of the abuse you’re receiving (eg, threats of violence or the circulation of a home address).
• If you’re not sure, ask yourself these questions, and consult a close friend or family member. Trust your gut.
• If you feel physically unsafe:

• Consider temporarily relocating to a place where you feel more physically secure (eg, a hotel or a friend or family member’s home).
• Consider contacting local law enforcement to:

• Alert them to an active threat (for eg, someone following you)
• File a police report for each threat that has made you feel unsafe. Even if they take no further action, filing a report creates formal documentation that can be useful if you decide to pursue legal action in future.
• Warn police that you could be swatted, especially if your home address is circulating online. Note: you may need to explain swatting.

• If you feel unsafe engaging with law enforcement, bring a friend who can advocate for you or go through your employer or publisher.
• Alert campus and/or workplace security, if relevant.

✅ Tighten your social media privacy.

• Consider temporarily making your social media accounts private until the harassment campaign subsides and use built-in anti-harassment features:

• Instagram: Go private and/or temporarily limit interactions.
• TikTok: Go private or turn off DMs. Learn more here.
• Bluesky: Learn more about how to clean up your feed.
• Facebook: Go private, try blocking, unfriending, or reporting. Learn more here.
• Threads: Go Private or restrict individual harassers.
• LinkedIn: Remove personal info from your profile.

✅ Monitor your digital accounts to document threats & abuse (and then report it).

• Create a list of your email and social media accounts and phone number(s)
• Monitor those accounts for threats, doxing of private information, or other abuse and document what you find (here’s a template you can use):

• Save threatening or abusive emails—quarantine them in an inbox folder and, if possible, save them as PDFs that include info about the sender, date, time, etc.
• Save threatening or abusive comments and messages on social media by taking screenshots (include user names, date, time, and engagement) and saving links.
• Save threatening or abusive voicemails and screenshots of texts.

• After documenting, report abusive content and accounts to relevant digital platforms.
• Consider recruiting friends/family to help (more below).

✅ Protect your cell phone number against theft (aka, SIM swapping).

• Call your cell phone provider and add a pin to protect your account. You may also be able to do this online. For example:

• AT&T users can follow the instructions here to use Wireless Account Lock.
• T-Mobile users and Verizon users can also enable SIM swap protection online.

✅  Be extra careful communicating with unfamiliar contacts.

• If you receive emails, texts, or calls from unfamiliar email addresses or phone numbers, do not click on links, download attachments, or provide private information.
• Do not click on password resets or security alerts you did not initiate yourself. When in doubt, go directly to the website or platform and log in to check.
• Do an online search before responding to new people who reach out to you to check their full name, title, affiliation, or email via a staff page, LinkedIn, etc.

✅ Reach out for help. Abuse is meant to isolate and intimidate, so don’t go it alone. 

• Reach out to trusted individuals (such as friends, family, colleagues, supervisors, editors, publicists, agents, assistants, etc.) to:

• Monitor your digital accounts and help you document/report, as described above.

• Ask that they alert you to anything that could impact your physical safety.
• Consider using account delegation features to share access (for eg, delegated access on Gmail, Outlook and X/Twitter).

• Offer you a safe place to stay, or to stay with you temporarily.
• Drop off food or run errands.
• Check in on your periodically to make sure you’re okay.
• Help you tighten your digital security.

• Reach out to trusted organizations (see page 4).

I’M READY TO LEVEL UP

✅ Lock up your most sensitive online accounts.

• Make a list of top 10 most sensitive accounts (eg, your email, social media, banking). Equality Labs has a worksheet that can help.
• Ensure each account has a long unique password (at least 16+ characters).
• Set up two-factor authentication (2FA) for each account (especially your main email!). An authenticator app (like Authy, Google Authenticator, or Duo) is more secure than a cell phone number. Don’t forget to save your backup codes!
• Set up a reputable encrypted password manager like Dashlane, 1Password, or BitWarden to store your passwords and 2FA backup codes.

• Strong passwords are a top priority. If setting up a password manager feels daunting, start by writing your updated passwords on a piece of paper stored in a secure accessible place until you’re ready to set up a password manager.

✅ Protect yourself from financial fraud.

• Make sure to set up a strong password and 2FA on financial accounts online.
• Tighten privacy settings on financial apps, such as Venmo or Cashapp, to make your transactions private and minimize data collection.
• Consider temporarily freezing your credit by following this guidance. Note: this will prevent you from taking out loans or opening new credit cards until you lift the freeze.

✅ Manage your email inbox.

• Consider temporarily removing your professional email address from online profiles. Using a contact form instead can add an additional layer of protection.
• If you receive harassing emails that often contain certain keywords, set up inbox filters to quarantine those messages in a designated folder (eg, in Google or Outlook).
• If you have gmail, consider setting up Google Advanced Protection.
• Do not click on links or download attachments from email addresses or phone numbers you don’t recognize (see above).

✅ Use encrypted messaging for calls and texts.

• Use encryption to ensure that only you and the person you’re texting/calling can see/hear the content of your conversation. You have options:

• Download and set up Signal and ask the people you want to communicate with securely to do the same. This is the most secure and best option.
• Use iMessage, which only works between Apple devices (not Apple to Android)
• Use WhatsApp in a pinch (Note: while WhatsApp is encrypted, it’s owned by Meta, which is known to track data about who you’re texting/calling, when, etc.)

✅ Scrub your data.

• Remove your personal information from data brokers (which bundle and sell info, such as home addresses and cell phones). You can do this in one of two ways:

• Invest in a data scrubber, like DeleteMe or EastOptOuts, which will request info removal for you. You can add family members or others for additional cost.
• Do it yourself (for free) using Yael Grauer's Big Ass Data Opt Out List; keep in mind that this can be labor intensive and time consuming.
• NOTE: it may take 4-6 weeks to see results.

• Find and remove personal contact info in Google Search results.
• Set up a Google Alert with variations of your name to help you monitor when you are mentioned online (or ask a trusted ally to do this for you).

✅ Clean up old posts and profiles.

• Review your online profiles (eg, staff page, professional website, social media profiles) and remove your personal info (eg, home address, personal cell, personal email, birthday, relatives’ names, and even your hometown if it’s small).
• Tighten the security and privacy settings on your social media accounts. You can find more detailed guidance via our Digital Safety Checklist and Digital Safety Snack videos.
• Consider archiving or deleting older social media posts, especially if they contain sensitive information. In-platform tools like Manage Activity on Facebook or third-party tools like Cyd for X/Twitter can help.
• Consider removing or reducing the visibility of photos of loved ones, friends, your home, and frequently visited places (eg, your favorite coffee shop).

✅ Protect your cell phone.

• Set up a virtual phone number to use publicly, while using your primary cell phone number only for friends, family, and other trusted contacts, by:

• Getting a Google Voice number using this guidance.
• Contacting your cell phone provider to explore your options.

• If you are concerned about government surveillance and have an iPhone, turn on iPhone’s Lockdown Mode. Note: this will reduce functionality, so you can switch it on temporarily for extra protection if you are facing very high levels of risk.

✅ Consider consulting a lawyer.

• Depending on what you’re experiencing, lawyers may be able to help. Learn more here. Check whether you can access legal support via your employer or union.

✅ Consider seeking professional mental health support.

• Doxing and online abuse can damage your mental health, which impacts your physical health. Consider seeking professional support, especially if you’re having difficulty sleeping, eating, or completing daily tasks. Learn more here.

If you need direct hands-on assistance, the following orgs may be able to help: