Doxxing offenders could face prison time under new laws

The act of releasing someone's personal information online with malicious intent - known as doxxing - is set to become a criminal offence. * The federal government has introduced legislation to parliament to outlaw doxxing and strengthen privacy protections * Doxxing typically involves revealing phone numbers or addresses online without consent, often to encourage others to harass a person or group * Offenders face a maximum penalty of seven years in prison if doxxing targets a person or group on basis of their race, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, intersex status, disability, nationality or national or ethnic origin * A shorter maximum penalty of six years behind bars applies to doxxing that is not directed at personal characteristics * Doxxing needs to be done in a way that "reasonable persons would regard as being menacing or harassing towards those individuals" to be considered an offence * Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said doxxing can lead to public embarrassment, humiliation, shaming, discrimination, stalking and identify theft and financial fraud and "inflict significant and lasting psychological harm" * The attorney-general also said it was a "damaging form of abuse" and was often targeted at women in incidents of domestic and family violence * Mr Dreyfus had pledged to act on the issue after the details of hundreds of Jewish people were published online earlier this year * The government plans to "bring the Privacy Act into the digital age" with a suite of other changes, including a new right to sue people or companies for invading their privacy * A specific children's privacy code will be designed to protect kids from online harms * The regulatory powers of the Information Commissioner will be broadened in line with the proposed laws