If you get doxxed, put physical safety first: when the post comes with threats, or anyone has turned up at your home, call 000 in Australia (911 in the US, 999 in the UK) before anything else. Then capture the evidence before posts vanish, report each post under the platform's private-information rules, ask Google to delist the pages, and brief the people you live with. Keep to that order, because deleting, confronting or posting about it first can cost you evidence or spread your details further.
First hour: safety, then a clean capture
- Decide whether anyone is in danger right now. A threat posted next to your address, someone waiting outside, or a call for people to visit you all justify calling Triple Zero immediately, which is also what the eSafety Commissioner's doxing advice says to do if you are at risk of immediate harm.
- If your home address is out and threats are involved, think about staying with someone you trust tonight, and tell one person where you are.
- Capture each post before reporting it: a screenshot showing the account, the content and the date and time, plus the page link and the poster's profile link, because display names change and links outlive them.
- Do not reply to the poster or to accounts resharing it, and hold off on any public statement until the reports are in.
- Sign out of other sessions and change the passwords on your email and main creator accounts in case the details came from a compromised login; our OnlyFans account recovery steps cover that process.
- Ask one trusted person to watch the thread and log new copies, so you are not refreshing it alone at midnight.
First day: report it wherever it appears
Each service applies its own private-information rules, and they do not treat the same details the same way. Use the route that matches where the post sits, and quote the rule in your report.
| Where your details appear | What the rule covers | Put this in the report |
|---|---|---|
| X | The private information policy bars sharing home addresses, private contact details and the identity of an anonymous user, and X says it may act on a home address even when it is available elsewhere | The post link, which detail is private, and that you never agreed to it being shared |
| Instagram and Facebook | Meta's privacy violations standard removes other people's full private addresses, including map pins and off-platform links, but may allow details already public through news or court filings | The post or story link, confirmation that it is your private residence, and any call for people to go there |
| Discord | Discord's doxxing policy bans sharing someone's personal information without permission and with intent to harm | The message link, the poster's user ID and the server name; our Discord safety guide covers in-server steps |
| Google Search results | The doxxing removal request covers personal details shown with threats, or large amounts of aggregated personal information with no legitimate purpose | Every URL separately, with screenshots; delisting does not remove the page itself |
| A standalone website or forum | The site's own terms first, then the domain's registrar, which ICANN's lookup tool identifies for generic domains | The URLs, what personal data they expose, and a plain request to remove it |
| Anywhere, if the service ignores you (Australia) | eSafety's adult cyber abuse scheme, which only starts after a report to the service | The service's report receipt or reference number alongside your evidence |
Keep every receipt, ticket number and automated reply. eSafety asks for proof that you complained to the service first, and police find a dated trail of reports easier to act on than a folder of screenshots.
Who reports can matter too. X says anyone can use its reporting flow when private information has been shared in a clearly abusive way, but in other cases it may need to hear from the person the information belongs to, or an authorised representative such as a lawyer, before acting. So friends reporting on your behalf help with obvious pile-ons, while your own report as the person affected carries more weight for borderline posts. If a report is refused, check whether the post also breaks a threats or harassment rule and report it again under that heading, quoting the exact words.
Evidence log template
Keep one log, stored somewhere the person behind the dox cannot reach, such as an account with its own password and two-step login. Add a line for every copy you find, including reposts by other accounts.
| Field | What to write | Why it earns its place |
|---|---|---|
| When you found it | Date, time and your time zone | Shows when the exposure began and how fast it is spreading |
| Exact location | The full URL or message link, not just the site name | Services and regulators need the specific item to act on it |
| Poster | Display name, handle, and profile link or user ID | Handles change overnight; IDs and profile links usually do not |
| What was exposed | For example street and suburb, legal name, workplace, a photo of your building | Sets the severity and tells you which records to lock down afterwards |
| Threat or call to action | The words copied exactly, in quotation marks | Platform rules, eSafety's threshold and police all turn on the wording |
| Capture file | Screenshot or export file name and where it is saved | Lets you hand over the original, not a copy of a copy |
| Reported to | Service, eSafety or police, with the date and reference number | Proves you followed the order each body expects |
| Outcome | Removed, refused, or still live when rechecked, with the date | Decides whether you escalate or close that line |
When to bring in police and eSafety
Go to police when the dox comes with threats, when someone follows you or comes to your home, when strangers start contacting your family or workplace, or when hoax deliveries or emergency calls are sent to your address. In Australia, use 000 for immediate danger; eSafety's adult cyber abuse page lists 131 444 for contacting local police about threats to you or your family, and the national ReportCyber service takes cybercrime reports. The Privacy and Other Legislation Amendment Act 2024 added doxxing offences to the Commonwealth Criminal Code, in force from 11 December 2024, for using a carriage service to make someone's personal data available in a way reasonable people would regard as menacing or harassing. Whether a particular post meets that test is for police and lawyers to judge, not something to argue with the poster.
eSafety's scheme covers an Australian adult targeted with material intended to cause serious harm that is also menacing, harassing or offensive, and its own description of serious abuse includes sharing someone's personal details and encouraging a pile-on. Its regulatory guidance explains that a removal notice cannot be given until 48 hours after you reported to the service, and that a notice then requires removal within 24 hours. In the US, call 911 for immediate danger; the FBI's IC3 takes reports of cyber-enabled crime but says it cannot reply to every complaint. In the UK, call 999 in an emergency or 101 otherwise.
First week: brief your household and close the source
A dox lands on everyone at the address. Give housemates, partners or family a short, calm briefing rather than every detail:
- Nobody confirms to callers or visitors who lives here, and nobody discusses the creator account with anyone who asks.
- Unexpected deliveries, food orders and “friends of yours” at the door are treated as suspect, the door stays shut to strangers, and anyone who will not leave gets a 000 call.
- Unfamiliar cars, visitors and calls are noted with the time and passed on for the evidence log.
- Everyone knows where to go and who phones police if something happens while you are out.
- If the post names a workplace, school or care provider, the person responsible there is told quietly so they can watch for contact.
Then work out where the details came from, because the same source can be used again. Our exposure audit for creators walks through search results, people-search sites, domain records and old accounts, and if the address came from the electoral roll or a business register, our guide to keeping your address private in Australia covers silent elector status and ASIC suppression. If the same person keeps coming back, treat it as stalking and use our stalking safety plan. Women dealing with abuse tied to their work can also use eSafety's Women In The Spotlight program.
Should you say anything publicly?
A callout post can carry your details to people who had never seen them. If your audience needs to know, keep it short: say that personal information is being shared without consent, ask people not to repost it and to report it instead, and never include a screenshot of the dox itself, even blurred. Do not name a suspect publicly; if you think you know who did it, that belongs in your police report. For wording, timing and when to stay quiet, our creator crisis management playbook covers public statements.
If the dox comes with images, threats or a fake account
Doxxing often arrives alongside another problem, and each has its own route. Use the matching guide rather than stretching this one:
- Intimate content shared without consent: the leaked content response plan.
- Demands for money or more content in exchange for silence: the sextortion safety steps.
- An account pretending to be you: the impersonation report workflow.
- Your paid content reposted alongside the details: the copyright takedown evidence pack.
- A fan sending threats directly: our threat triage guide.
After the first week: monitor without reliving it
Reposts can surface weeks later, but checking every hour keeps the incident at the centre of your day. Hand the routine to tools and a schedule instead: turn on notifications in Google's Results about you so new search results with your details reach you, pick fixed times for anyone helping you to search the places the dox first appeared, and add each new copy to the log rather than reacting to it on the spot. Close a line in the log only when you have rechecked it on a later date.
Being doxxed is frightening, and fear that lingers after the posts come down is a normal reaction rather than a sign you handled it badly. Talk to someone you trust, and if you are in Australia and struggling, Lifeline offers 24-hour crisis support on 13 11 14. Our creator wellbeing guide has longer-term support options.
Limitations of this plan
This plan is general information, not legal advice, and it is based on official pages read on 1 October 2026. Platforms decide reports under their own rules and can refuse them, eSafety's threshold for adult cyber abuse is deliberately high, and taking down one copy does nothing about copies already saved elsewhere. Laws differ between countries and states, so the offences mentioned here may not be the ones that apply to you. Contact police whenever you feel unsafe, and talk to a lawyer, community legal centre or legal aid service about court orders or claims against the person responsible.