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Whenever I hear doxxing of others on the internet, I sometimes hear the rebuttal of "oh it's public information, it's okay". But even if it's public information that's been dug up, isn't the use for it for malice/harassment making it illegal? Let me know what you think

In the past, you already had the example of risking your information with the culture of milking Lolcows.

Even if the Internet is being taken over by data-hungry corporations, it should always be your responsibility to protect it to the best of your abilities. You can never expect anyone to follow laws or even a degree of morality.

To be honest, if you know the full name of someone, chances are you can look them up, see their phone number, relatives, criminal record, and what state they live in. I believe that's public knowledge because there's isn't any laws preventing websites or phonebooks from showing that.

Still doesn't change the fact doxxing is still a shitty act, so yeah, it's illegal if you act upon with malice.

The entire point of doxxing is to reveal someone's location specifically for harassment.

So regardless of whether it's "public" info or not, the intent is always malicious.

While a lot of information about someone can be found online, doxxing is almost always used as a means of harrasement or worse, to enable others to inflict harm. Big example is swatting. Some people get shot at the end and the one's making the phone calls shrug it off as if it wasn't their fault and will make any excuse to wash their hands of guilt