[09F911029D74E35]

>more extreme possibilities like 4chan/Reddit doxxings

I've actually had that happen to me. I was generally respected but had rather strong opinions on (relatively uncontroversial) subjects, so one day someone who didn't like me that much decided to go all internet detective on me and dug up various data about me, like my name, address, phone number, names of relatives, Facebook pictures... Up to that point I had been generally pseudonymous (though I had been a bit careless with my info - some domain whois data was my undoing, and while my Facebook account is shut up tight for strangers, this isn't the case for some of my less technical relatives).

Luckily enough it didn't turn into any abuse in real life, as most people thought the doxxing was a stupid move. Now I just get some idiots occasionally spamming my name and picture and insulting my family in front of me. It's easy enough to ignore, but it's also kind of sad that my pseudonymity is basically dead by this point. The genie is out of the bottle, and I can't really put it back unless I start completely over - which I just can't do. As a result, I tend to avoid talking about some controversial issues altogether, as I don't want to "taint" my name by saying something that could be perceived negatively in the future. There's also some things that I just feel rather uncomfortable to talk about with my name and info out there, like the doxxing itself, which is why I'm using a throwaway account for this post.