Below are some instructions about how to minimize the possibility of online harassment. If you are currently being harassed online or you feel your safety is being threatened, please contact campus police or local police for guidance.
If you'd like to request a security consultation with T&I information security staff, please contact ti@davidson.edu.
Online harassment is one of the risks of engaging in online communities or social media. In some cases, harassers seek out more information about individuals to increase the harassment or to engage in the real world. “Doxxing,” as it is frequently called, is the act of gathering someone's personal information and revealing it to the public, usually in a demeaning or malicious way. This can be done in a variety of ways, including, but not limited to, public humiliation, online harassment, stalking, and possible identity theft.
Many positions in academia promote a public presence and encourage posting about your job on social media. Given the risk of online harassment, when integrating social media with your job, we recommend you exercise caution around posting personally identifiable information.
Below are some precautions you can consider taking to decrease the chances of online harassment or minimize the amount of information that is publicly available to you:
- Search yourself. Research what information is available about you using a standard internet search, and determine what info you may want to pursue removing, versus what you find reasonable to remain public. Malicious actors can go to great lengths to find out everything they can about you, so you may want to take adequate time to be as thorough as possible in your search.
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Be careful about what you post or share online. Some public records (like property ownership, tax records, and voter registration rolls) may be out of your control, but you have the power to control what and where you post. Personal information has the potential to be used against you in a malicious manner, so be careful when posting private data. If you use social media as part of your professional practice, be aware that posts on a platform you can not control may not be able to be deleted later.
- Redact offers faculty a powerful tool for managing their digital footprint by automatically deleting old social media posts and direct message history across multiple platforms. This service can be particularly valuable for academics who want to maintain professional boundaries while reducing their vulnerability to doxxing attempts.
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Update your social media privacy settings. Online harassment often comes via social media platforms. To help prevent this, try adjusting your privacy settings to decrease the potential for harassment. This can be done on your phone or computer.
Overall Guide:
Social Pilot's Guide on How to Manage Social Media Privacy Settings
More Detailed Social Media Guides:
X (Twitter) Help Center: Report Abuse Behavior
Facebook Help Center: Report Content on Facebook
YouTube Help: Harassment & Cyberbullying Policies
Instagram Help Center: Abuse, Spam, and Scams -
Remove yourself from data broker sites. Data brokers collect your data from various websites and anywhere they can find it, and then sell the information they find. It is important to remove any data you can find from these brokers to ensure your information is safe and kept within your desired scope. The easiest and quickest way to do this is to use a web search to search yourself and see what data broker websites reveal about you.
Then, go through these websites to opt out of their “service”. If you need help opting out, you can contact ti@davidson.edu.For those who prefer a hands-off approach to protecting their personal information, there are affordable services that specialize in data removal from broker sites and people search engines. Services like DeleteMe and Optery offer automated solutions that continuously monitor and remove your personal data from hundreds of data broker websites.
Some big data broker sites to opt out of include:
- Change your passwords. If you suspect one or more of your accounts have been compromised (banking information, email, social media, etc.), you should change your passwords on all of your accounts. Davidson has recommendations for Password Best Practices. We also strongly encourage you to use a different password for each site. A simple and convenient way of doing this would be to use a password manager, such as 1Password or BitWarden, to safely secure your accounts.
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Enroll in two-factor authentication to protect your accounts. This step will prevent malicious actors from accessing your accounts even if they have your username and password.
- Two Factor Auth (2FA)
- Duo Multi-Factor Auth (suitable for both Davidson College and personal use)
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Limit granting third-party applications permissions when connecting to social media sites. Third-party applications that ask to use your social media information can accumulate this information and use it however they like, including selling it to data brokers. Start by revoking access for any applications you no longer use or need, as dormant apps still retain their permissions and can become security vulnerabilities.
Remove permissions entirely for any apps you don't recognize, as these could be malicious applications that gained access without your knowledge, or apps you authorized so long ago you've forgotten about them. Be vigilant for warning signs when applications request permissions. Watch out for apps that demand full account access when their functionality only requires limited permissions—for instance, a scheduling app that wants to read all your emails instead of just calendar access.
If you have more questions or concerns, please view the further resources provided below or email ti@davidson.edu.
Further Resources: