Source
r/privacy•
jacksdottir

Recruiting participants for a study on doxxing

Has your private information been released online without your permission?

We are researchers at a large Midwest University in the USA seeking people whose private information has been released online without consent. For some, the releasing of private information has made them vulnerable to online and offline attack and harassment. This process is also called doxxing. In this study we seek to better understand the experience of being doxxed, the impact the experience has on targeted people, and the ways it impacts wider online communication. Right now, much of the studies being conducted on doxxing use high profile case studies. By focusing on everyday internet users we hope to better inform policy makers regarding the lived consequences of doxxing to targets as well as add to a growing academic body of privacy and internet scholarship.

Are you •over the age of 18 years old •and have had private information released online i.e. have been the target of doxxing

If you are interested in participating or have questions, please email me: Dr. Stine Eckert at Stine dot Eckert at wayne dot edu

Interviews will be conducted online Skype/Google for about 45-60 minutes. Your name will be kept confidential and will not be used in the study. You will not be asked for your “real” name or any pseudonym which may link back to your real life.

Also, questions are welcomed in PM at this handle, or below in the thread.

Posted May 16, 2017, 9:21 PM UTC

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jacksdottirOP•

Here is also a link to our recruitment flyer! http://imgur.com/8MW5lPp

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trai_depMOD•

FYI, this post was vetted and cleared by the r/Privacy Mods.

It's an interesting and under-studied issue. These sorts of projects help change that.

But please, any questions, issues or concerns, communicate them. The OP will monitor this post and reply.

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thereisnoprivacy•

Be very careful with how you ultimately present the actual case study material in your article. See for example Lubarfsky's recent Re-Identification of “Anonymized” Data. Though most existent work addresses re-identification of quantitative datasets, similar issues of re-identification also apply to qualitative case studies. Essentially, what you'll want to do is review your draft to see which personal anecdotal details may potentially be used for subject discovery (even if the obvious markers like name and basic situational details have been removed/obfuscated) by inputting those details into a search engine.

In other words, it would be unfortunate for victims of doxing to be doxxed yet again following any information inadvertently leaked during your study.

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jacksdottirOP•

This is a really excellent point and one we've considered in our write up and studies. Sarah Tracey's Qualitative Methods book makes mention of this very problem. Just recently, I reviewed an interesting article that's being presented in our discipline's international conference about how researchers can be careless in both the collection of information AND in the analysis write up of information. I'm glad you brought this up and thank you for adding another good (incredibly recent) article I can add to my "to read" list.

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thereisnoprivacy•

It's very refreshing to see you being attentive to these issues :). All too often this kind of work doesn't get any more attention than 'oh, we changed their name/location/age, that should be enough right?'

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jacksdottirOP•

Agreed. And those things can be generalized enough that it helps to obscure the person while still contextualizing the data/quotation. "Midwest" instead of "Minnesota" or "between 30-40" instead of "32". Or can be coded differently. Something. Sometimes it feels sloppy or inattentive to the folks who are generous enough with their time and experience to take party in your study.

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thereisnoprivacy•

Just came across this cautionary tale (in the form of a legal complaint demanding a jury trial) of inadequate pseudonymization, which was filed just last week.

See especially p. 12 (par. 56):

Unwanted Advances, however, goes well beyond describing and criticizing Title IX processes. Indeed, it needlessly devotes an entire chapter to Plaintiff, to whom Defendant KIPNIS assigns a thinly-disguised pseudonym. That chapter contains wholly gratuitous private facts about Plaintiff's personal life -- facts never before publicized, and facts that Plaintiff did not want publicized.

Basically the plaintiff is filing a complaint alleging, in part, that a book author did not sufficiently mask their identity and divulged personal information about the defendant that the defendant did not want divulged.

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Paranoidsbible•

Do you need any info on anti-dox? I help with a group that works on educating people about the rudimentary knowledge needed to remove information and prevent it in the first place. Outside of that, can't offer any other info that some personal stories from other members that were posted.

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jacksdottirOP•

Yes, I'd appreciate any links or websites you could provide. We make an argument about the complexity of this problem and making note of the different organizations (profit and non-profit) which have cropped up to answer this problem such as WAM! and Take Back the Tech. Also, if you're group has a list or a website or a social media platform, feel free to share our imgur link above. Any help is appreciated!

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Paranoidsbible•

Our main resource, on the blog, is located at https://paranoidsbible.tumblr.com/library whereas the main blog is a bit unprofessional in order to create a more relaxing environment for those who browse and dig around there.

You can find backups of our work at our pastebin account, which is https://pastebin.com/u/paranoidsbible

We're working toward helping the average user and the uninitiated get involved into pro-privacy, which is quite hard to do due to some preconceived beliefs and ideas when it comes to privacy and security.

Outside of that, I'll pass it up the chain and see if anyone's on that runs the blog and see if they'll post your link. We're aimed at being available for everyone, mind you, so that everyone can prevent dox before happening.

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jacksdottirOP•

This is great! Ya'll are doing excellent work!

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