HOW TO ACCESS DARK || DEEP WEB

HOW TO ACCESS THE DEEP WEB AND THE DARK WEB

WHAT’S ON THE DEEP WEB?

The hidden world of the Deep Web contains a plethora of data, information, and a wealth of possibilities, including but not limited to the following:

The internal sites of major companies, associations, and trade organizations
The school, college, and university intranet systems
Access to online databases
Password-protected websites with members-only access
Paywall enshrouded pages
Timed access pages such as those found on online test-taking sites
Circumventing paywalls for blocked digital content
An individual’s personal account for social media, email, banking, and more

How to Access The Dark Web

In an effort to maintain privacy, Dark World visitors commonly utilize specialized anonymity software such as Tor to mask their identity. Traditionally, when an internet user visits any site that exists on the world wide web, they are tracked via their Internet Protocol (IP) address.

In stark contrast, surfing the Dark Web is an entirely different matter altogether, with masking software used to render a personal computer anonymous while masking identity, location, IP address, and more.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE DEEP WEB AND THE DARK WEB

Deep Web and Dark Web are understood by many to be interchangeable terms that both describe a host of illicit online activities. However, this is untrue and many activists have fought to stop the tandem use of the terms and to bring to light the distinct ways in which each concept exists in the online world today.

Here is a table comparing both platforms along with the surface web, which is the internet most of us use daily.

	THE SURFACE WEB	THE DEEP WEB	THE DARK WEB
How to Access	Traditional search engine	Requires password, encryption, or specialty software	Requires Tor Project or similar to view
Includes	All indexed web pages	All unindexed webpages	Subset of unindexed webpages inside the deep web
Size	Approximately 4.47 billion pages	Massive, likely 4-5x larger than the Surface web	A subset of the Deep Web, but unmeasurable in size
Uses	Email, social media, video, legitimate business websites, etc.	Usually used for legit purposes that require anonymity	Sometimes used for illegal activities
Who uses it?	Anyone with an internet connection	Whistleblowers, journalists, etc.	Hackers, sellers & buyers of illegal merchandise
Can be browsed anonymously?	No, nearly all activity can be seen by your ISP.	Usually, especially if you use a VPN to access.	With precautions, yes.

THE FINAL WORD: THE DEEP WEB AND THE DARK WEB

Today, countless internet users try to gain entry into the Deep Web and the Dark Web. Some are looking for something in particular that simply can’t be sourced on the regular internet, others are simply curious.

The Deep Web, the Dark Web, and tools such as Tor hold mass appeal due to their secretive natures. Despite their relatively recent invention, the appeal they hold is as old as time itself. It is human nature to be intrigued by that which we don’t understand or cannot easily access.