Written by: Ashwot Acharya - 22021, Grade XII
Posted on: 04 April, 2022
When talking about the deep web we generally get afraid, thinking about the dark web, the hackers and the crazy scary stories. I am not saying that these stories are fake, matter of fact they are 100% true but that is not the deep web that we are so afraid of. Those stories are less than 1% of the dark web which is different from the deep web. In standard terms, the deep web is the part of the internet that is inaccessible through standard search engines like google yahoo or Bing.
The deep web generally contains free for service websites, private Databases, non indexed websites and the dark web . Yes, THE DARK WEB. Search engines use bots to crawl the internet and provide the most relevant and most desired websites based on what you search and what others have searched. Search engines like Google, Bing etc use something called SEO, which stands for search engine optimization. The algorithm basically goes to a different index on the website, pulls the information , analyzes the page, also taking into factors other variables like signals, or in which search query should the websites be sent etc. And the major use of SEO is to make sure that the users get exactly what they want. But the websites in the deep web are dynamically generated and do not contain reference links from other websites i.e. making them un-indexed websites, and hence the search engines do not go to such websites as it can’t be found.
The deep web consists of mostly free-for-service sites, such as websites where you can watch pirated movies for free, or fee-for-service sites like Netflix but with more access to many different kinds of contents,databases for huge storage etc are available in the deep web. Then we have private databases which are a big part of the deep web. Private databases refer to storage , a database for individuals to share , to save photos , and information between a few friends. It may contain their private transaction records of the money that they have spent , or maybe just information that they do not wish to share to just everybody.
Now I will not believe you said that you haven’t heard of the silk road, the most famous dark web which can be reached by specialized search engines. The silk road was the best marketplace for buying and selling of drugs, a famous black-market, owned by Ross Ulbricht , who was later arrested by the FBI and the website was shut down, due to the privacy level capturing the culprit was one of the more difficult tasks. Currently in the dark web we can find many iterations of the silk-road and the sheer number makes it super difficult for the police to capture the creator and the owner of such websites. Of course there are always the advantages and the disadvantages of such a network. Currently a lot of people use the deep web. We can’t estimate the exact size but a lot of people do use it. The major reason people use such networks comes down to privacy. Deep web provides private and secure internet, meaning that you can access information without being tracked by the bots. The encryption they provide is another benefit, this allows people to use the fee-for-service application and keeps other people at bay, the data is encrypted and the security that the users get is amazing hence the growing population use it, matter of fact people just like you and me access surface web information through the dark web as it is far better and security is far more reliable.
However that doesn’t mean you can go and say anything on the deep web and no one will know who you are. Accessing the deep web you have to also be careful about various things , understand the information and make sure the information you get is reliable. Be wary of scams as there are a lot. You have to use your judgment properly.
According to Wikipedia the dark net was first used in the 1970s in which they described the government funded network for security purposes and later around 2002 the term gained public acceptance from a publication by peter biddle called “ The Darknet and the future of content distribution “ .
With that said most of now have a question on how we can access it . Accessing the dark web and the deep web is done through onion links using the tor project . The tor project is an open source privacy network that allows us to view the web anonymously and works on the encrypted protocol in which the data of the user is shielded in different layers like the onion. The technology was made by the US Navy to protect sensitive information from the government and create secure communication. And later that project was available to the public as TOR-Project and the source code is accessible to everyone, developers all around the world work together to upgrade the tor and enhance the user experience.
Tor uses onion-style routing system meaning that when you as a user transfer a request the browser instead of connecting you directly to the website is bounced to another random number of tor user’s computer which finally gets you to the website. This doesn’t mean that you can do whatever you want. There are ways that your identity can be revealed hence you have to be super careful as stated before.
Now should I as a general user without much knowledge use such an advanced browsing method ?
My simple answer to that is yes. We general people need to understand the privacy feature but it's not for everyone. If you have a hard time understating the information, making sure that the information you get is true or reliable then it's not for you. The major problem of accessing the dark net is excessive nudity and scamming websites. It is not for children, and not for those who find searching for information difficult , or for those who cannot identify scamming websites easily. Hence overall for someone who is interested, who has a good self control, who likes to explore the venture , and to those who want to understand the depth of privacy it is perfect.
I have explored both the deep web and the dark web and I can tell you that it is enormous , in every sense, the amount of websites are beyond comparable. You can find useful and useless information. I heard about the deep web when listening to creepy pasta, a horror related internet legend. And wanted to see what this internet was like. In such a process I have understood privacy , VPN, its importance and many more. You may have a question: what are you doing on the deep web? In the process of understanding the deep and dark web I have found lot of websites which I found interesting and amongst them was the so called hidden wiki , it is like a Wikipedia but in the deep web, and you can find a lot of information there, the reliability of the website may be questionable, and this is trend for all the websites in the deep web. Another website that I found really useful is the hidden library, the library consists of a lot of e-books , many languages, free of cost, and for me I have found there every single book that I look for, I had even looked for one of the latest books published in the recent years and its there, and another website for audio books. But I have only told you about the good stuff that I have found, there are bad and really bad forums, forms that look innocent like reddit but are more like 4chan. Like I said before, excessive nudity, illegal activities especially hacking , black hat hackers who can hack anyone for money and many that cannot be stated are illegal things. While accessing the dark web I saw the true evil nature of humans, people who in real life look innocent but deep down are beyond monsters, you can find a discussion where the people describe how they kidnapped a person and extorted money, or killed them. These are the bad aspects of the dark web. Does it mean you should be wary of the dark web? Yes, you should. Understand, get the information you want, verify the information , stay in the deep web but try to stay away from the dark web. It is not worth the trouble and the hassle.
In a nutshell the deep web is a deeper part of the net with indexed and unindexed websites, hidden websites and dark web is a collection of unindexed websites where most illegal activities take place. But once you have understood the bad aspects you can access the deep web, like many users are doing right now. Overall the advantages outweighs the disadvantages but you need to know and be confident in your self that you won’t do stupid things in the dark web.
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