Doxxing In India: Is Publishing Someone’s Personal Information Online A Crime?
Disha Maheshwari, NMIMS Kirit P. Mehta School of Law
ABSTRACT
The internet has transformed personal information into a readily accessible and highly distributable commodity. Information such as a person's address, telephone number, workplace, photographs and family details can be collected from multiple sources and disseminated to thousands within minutes. This practice, commonly known as “doxxing,” creates a difficult legal question in India because no statute presently recognises doxxing as an independent offence. Instead, harmful disclosures may attract liability under constitutional privacy jurisprudence, the Information Technology Act, 2000, the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023, intermediary regulations and the emerging data-protection framework. This article argues that the principal legal difficulty is not simply whether information is publicly available, but whether its deliberate aggregation and amplification creates a foreseeable risk of serious harm. It proposes a contextual framework based on the nature, source, purpose and consequences of disclosure, while preserving legitimate journalism, whistleblowing and public-interest expression.
Keywords: Doxxing, Privacy, Article 21, Freedom of Speech, Informational Privacy, Cybercrime, Data Protection, Intermediary Liability, Media Law.
