Why is it scary if someone leaks your IP address? (i.e., How does doxxing actually work?)

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I am *really* not a computer guy, and this question has kinda been on my mind since I found out about doxxing/IP grabbers ages ago. I didn’t really care too much, since I am not a fan of putting people in danger over twitter like a dickhead, but can someone tell me generally why it’s a serious issue if someone leaks your IP?

Since this sounds as if I’m trying to doxx someone: I’m posting after searching my own IP & I found that most websites pinpointed my address to a different country entirely?? (Still a country next to mines, but definitely more than far away enough for me to care if mines were leaked). Famous people who get doxxed online always move away for safety, so I’m really confused why that is when the website I used to check my own IP address on a bunch of places online at once usually all ended up being a whole country off.

Even though I shouldn’t need to state this outright; **don’t give a step-by-step guide on how to doxx people**. I don’t want to know that. I just want to know why IP grabbing is such a big deal and how doxxing is possible vaguely in a way that forces people to move cities.

In: Technology

40 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Doxxing is not particularly a serious concern regarding an IP address being leaked. The location they yield is very vague, often not exact enough for anyone to be able to cause significant harm with it.

The true concern is rather with the ability of a DDoS attack. In short, the IP can now be flooded with traffic, which often times will slow it down to an unusable degree, and sometimes even temporarily take it down.
However, for someone to care enough to send a DDoS attack at you, you’d have to have hurt them pretty badly.

Generally, getting your IP leaked is not a large concern, especially since an IP can easily be changed by simply restarting the server.

(if I stated anything wrong, please tell me. this is my first time answering a question on this sub so it may not be the most accurate)

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