This is a non-comprehensive guide to limiting the impact of a doxx by the far-right. This guide will make reference to situations that may be scary, but are not intended to cause panic. Right wingers usually lose interest in a doxx after a short while unless you're high profile.
Your best defense against a doxx is your community. Reach out for support from your friends and family, this is critical. Some of these practices are good even if you have not been doxxed.
- By far the easiest and most readily available source of information
- Make all profiles private
- Remove your name and face from your social media profiles
- Ask your family and close friends to go private and untag your photos from their pages
- Change your @/handle on all platforms if possible
- Request to be removed from social media aggregator websites
- Change your passwords
- Much of your private info is searchable through your legal name. You can opt out of most of this information but some of it is accessible through public records.
- Use the DeleteMe DIY Free Opt Out guide to remove yourself from major public info databases
- Consider signing up for a paid DeleteMe or a similar private service
- Change your passwords and get a password manager like LastPass or 1Password
- Sign up for fraud alerts through your bank
- Have a friend try to find info about you by typing “<your full name>, <your city>” into various search engines, and remove yourself accordingly
- Change your phone number and sign up for a PO Box
- Ask to be removed from the public section of your Elections public records office
- Having difficult conversations with close friends, housemates, and family members about what happened is important
- Try to remain calm and confident when discussing the issue
- Don't be alarmist and don't speculate - talk about concrete steps
- Ask for support like regular check ins, for them to drive by your place (after letting you know), a place to stay, or suggest taking a trip out of the area if appropriate
- Explain that you are taking steps to keep yourself and them safe
- There may be professional impacts from your doxx but you can do a lot by notifying your employer that far right groups have targeted you for your activism
- Ask to be removed from your employer's website or public facing staff directory
- Ask for time off if appropriate/possible
- Gauge your employers' reaction, some may be sympathetic and some may not
- Show them articles explaining the far right group targeting you (see Southern Poverty Law Center or Anti-Defamation League)
- If the doxx is severe, there may be harassment and lies told about you to your job/employer. Make sure to explain this to your employer.
- Make preparations to switch jobs if necessary. It will not likely come to this unless the doxx is severe and persistent.
Understand that if you find yourself in a dangerous situation, your best bet is to flee. If you are unable to, you should work to de-escalate and diffuse the situation as much as possible. Talk about defensive scenarios with a trusted community organization.
You should be aware that the right often uses threats and intimidation as a primary component of their doxx. This includes flooding social media with threats and graphic images, mailing, calling, and in some cases showing up to your home. Most instances are less extreme, but it is important to prepare in the event that these situations escalate.
- Assess your situation based on your security and safety needs and do not spiral into paranoia
- Talk you concerns over with an org that does community defense as well as with trusted friends
- Invest if possible in security equipment (a peephole, motion sensor porch light, window and door alarm bells, a door jammer lock, decking screws for door hinges, etc.)
- Have check ins with friends regularly
Making sure to address the physiological and mental health needs in the event of a doxx are extremely important. They keep you able to make salient decisions and mitigate some of the inevitable stress and anxiety from these sorts of threats.
- Drink water
- Do breathing exercises
- Eat food that gives you the nutrition you need
- Exercise regularly if possible
- Set a strong password for your email, since password recoveries for other services will go there
- Download Authy or Google Authenticator on your mobile device, and use it as a “two-factor authentication” (2FA) method for services where possible. This will require you to have your phone and the 2FA app in order to log into other services. A push notification or a 2FA app should be used over SMS, because SMS can be taken if someone asks your cell provider to "activate a new phone." Here's how to activate it for some services:
- For each service, O'Connor suggests:
- Use a strong password, "think 6-7 words (not a quote though!)"
- Change the security questions to outright lies, or a randomly generated password/string
- Save the passwords using a password aggregator (1Password [Paid] or LastPass [Free])
- Call your cell phone provider and set up set up "port-out protection" with a long password that you can generate and store in your password manager
- Before a protest, read the Surveillance Self Defense Guide