Public Channel

Hi all.

I'm thinking about pulling together some resources on doxxing/personal security for researchers.

There are general resources out there, but few that focus on researchers/academics. Academics are particularly vulnerable because of their public facing role. Not only is scholarship available to wide audiences (which is a good thing!), but also there are more coordinated efforts to monitor researchers and target them. Moreover, a lot more personal information is available about academics, especially those working for public institutions, than for a regular person. It is quite easy for a motivated entity to show up at your classroom, your office, or even your home.

For those conducting research on topics that may be more likely to be targeted, there are proactive steps that can be taken to reduce these vulnerabilities. Some are technical, others require requests to be filed, and many are social/behavioral. And of course there are things that can be done after an attack.

So, I'd love to have a thread where people share resources, especially those relevant to researchers. I'm especially interested in finding others not based in the U.S. So much of the protective steps depend on one's jurisdiction such as removing information from public records and contacting law enforcement.

I'm not sure what will come of this, but if you're interested, please post in here. If you're not comfortable posting with your name, please contact me privately and I can post on your behalf.

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Katy Pearce
Associate Professor
U of Washington
Seattle WA
United States
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Interested in learning.

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Michael Devlin
Associate Professor
Texas State University
San Marcos TX
United States
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Hi Katy and everyone,

I am also interested in learning about this more from a practical standpoint for academics.

I just published a study with interviews with 15 doxxing victims in the US, Germany, Switzerland, Finland, and Canada, one of them was a scholar as well. The study is focused on the experiences of victims, how they responded, and which resources were available to them or not, in the different countries e.g. lawyers, police, institutions. I attached the PDF: 

Stine

Associate Professor

Department of Communication

Wayne State University

Detroit, MI 48201

@stineeckert

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Stine Eckert
Associate Professor
Wayne State U
Detroit MI
United States
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