Improving my Vocabulary

 #59 September 22:  What is doxing (or doxxing, I’ve seen it spelled both ways)?  I read it in the paper this morning and it was used in a novel I’m reading by Stacy Abrams.  I sort of had an idea of the definition by context, but decided to look it up.  According to Google doxing is “the act of revealing identifying information about someone online, such as their real name, home address, workplace, phone, financial or other personal information without their permission.  Is it illegal?  Also according to Google, doxing itself is not a crime, but could contribute to another criminal offense such as harassment, stalking, identity theft, or incitement to violence.  And it may be against X, or Twitter, or other social media rules.  9/19

#60 September 23:  And here’s a 2^nd word I learned today:  neologism!  Neologism is a spelling alteration of an existing word to create a new one.  For example, doxing is a neologism derived from the slang “dropping dox” or documents, which according to Mat Honan in Wired was “an old-school revenge tactic that emerged from hacker culture in the 1990s”.  Darn!  I guess my vocabulary is stuck in the 80’s or worse!  As I read on about the history of doxing on Wikipedia, it cited examples all the way back to the Stamp Act of 1765 when the Sons of Liberty harassed tax collectors who did not comply with boycotts on British goods by publishing their names in pamphlets and newspaper articles! 9/19