People often get confused between the deep web and the dark web. They consider the deep web as dark web while few say that deep web and dark web both are separate layers. Moreover, the story is a bit different from their beliefs. The deep web is a part of the internet that doesn’t get indexed by search engines, and you need to have the URL of a webpage that you want to access while the dark web is a tiny part of the deep web mainly famous because of the malicious and illegal activities.
However, there are a lot of other things that people should know about the dark web to understand it properly. Here we are going to talk about all those things so that you can have a better understanding of both deep web and dark web. Even though the article is related to the dark web but before proceeding directly to the dark web, we should have a basic understanding of the deep web, and because of that, I am going to give a brief introduction to the deep web first, and then we can proceed further.
What is the Deep Web?
The deep web is the place of the internet that doesn’t get indexed by search engines. It contains more than 90% part of the actual internet, and it is at least 1000x massive than the internet that we are allowed to access. The pages in the deep web blocks search engine’s crawlers to crawl their websites so that it won’t get indexed. It is the most prominent way to push your website into the deep web; however, it is a fundamental step, but most of the sites use this method only.
But since because just stopping crawlers doesn’t ensure that the website isn’t accessible for regular users, there are a lot of other technologies these webmasters implement on their websites. Some of the prevalent methods are creating pages where authentications are required or creating dynamic pages with encrypted networks. Now you are aware with the deep web. Let’s talk about websites in the deep web or we call them deep web links.
Deep web links, and are they illegal to access?
Deep web links are the links that are not indexed by search engines — for example, your social media’s timeline, your email’s inbox, or the shopping cart of an e-commerce store. Commonly, we can say that anything that is hidden behind the wall of security that requires authentication to access is the part of deep web links; although most of the websites from the deep web have some webpages indexed, such as login or registration page so that user can log in to their accounts.
Moreover, some web pages from the deep web are completely unavailable for the search engine. These web pages contain information that is not available for regular users. Data that company stores on their private databases, medical records of a hospital, scientific & academic databases are the great examples of such websites of the deep web.
The deep web acts similarly to the surface web, although it is available for limited users only. If we talk about the legality, then no way, the dark web is not illegal unless you’re doing something unlawful.
What is the Dark Web?
The dark web is a very small part of the deep web, which is highly secured and encrypted with the security called Darknet. In a clear sense, we can refer to the dark web as a part of the internet that is not available for normal users. To surf the dark web, you need specific browsers such as TOR, which creates networks layer to ensure that your identity will be secured.
It was created by the US government to send and received messages from the spies, but later it grew up so big, and now it is the darkest and untraceable place on the internet. A succinct group of people mainly uses it. Whereas there are billions of internet users, hardly 1 percent or 2 have powers to access this part of the internet.
Who uses the dark web?
Dark web offers very robust security and anonymity. And based on uses, we can separate its users into two different categories—Criminals and Non-criminals.
Criminals use it because it gives them anonymity, and with it, they can easily procure illicit things like drugs, pornography, weapons, stolen user accounts, and passwords, stolen bank account and credit card details, counterfeit money, and even hire a hitman for murder contracts. In 2013, an illegal marketplace, Silk Road, was shut down by the government, and its founder has sentenced life in prison without any parole. It was very famous for buying-selling illegal things and narcotics.
However, some non-criminals also uses it. The reason they use it is because of the anonymity it offers, and they need it because the information they share is sensitive or volatile. Journalists, Spies, Whistleblowers like Julian Assange use the dark web to send or store confidential documents anonymously or for communicating secretly so that they won’t get detected by authorities.
Is the Dark Web illegal?
If you want a single word answer, then-No, the dark web is not illegal because it just adds some levels of security, encryptions, and anonymity to surf the internet, and doing it is not unlawful.
However, doing something illegal on the Dark web is as unlawful as it is in the real world. Also, it was developed by US DARPA (Defence Advanced Research Project Agency) with the support of many other US government resources, including the Office of Naval Research. Since a government developed it, how can you say it illegal? Also, not only criminals use the dark web.
But a regular internet user shouldn’t use it. If you want to browse this place of internet, I advise you check out this guide by DeepWebSitesLinks.com on how to access deep web safely and do some research, learn about networking and security because a wrong step taken on the dark web can ruin your life completely. Also, don’t wholly rely on TOR. Always use a good VPN software while browsing or reading about deep web/dark web.
I have covered all possible queries about dark web. But still if you have any doubt, feel free to comment.