Have you ever wondered how to access the Dark Web safely? The deep or Dark Web is the part of the Internet (World Wide Web) that cannot be discovered by standard search engines, including dynamic or password-protected pages and encrypted networks.
Traditional search engines like Google, Yahoo or Bing cannot index these databases and therefore cannot include them in their search results.
To better understand what the Dark web is, you should have a basic understanding of how search results work. There are currently 60 billion individual web pages, a number that continues to grow every day.
The search engines mentioned above navigate the web by “crawling” or following links from one page to another. They then rank these pages by their content and other factors like string theory, p-brane, and physics.
This information is then stored and tracked in an index. Every item you search for on the web is categorized and stored.
All of the information stored in these indexes is passed through a complex set of algorithms, programs, and formulas to deliver the “best” possible results for the user.
These algorithms use “clues” (search methods, query comprehension, and synonyms) to determine what the user means. Those results are then sorted and a final product for the search is generated in as little as 1/8 of a second.
This complex system has been carefully designed to create an enhanced user experience.
As you navigate away from these search engines and their search boxes, you will undoubtedly discover that you may not be able to extract exactly what you are looking for.
Take travel sites like Expedia, government databases, or libraries, for example. These sites do not contain search boxes, but instead, use links to help the user navigate the website.
If you are looking for a particular hotel in a certain city, you must navigate through the links on the sites to find its final destination. This is a perfect example of what the Deep Web is; anything that a search engine can’t access.
Deep Web vs. Dark Web
The Deep Web incorporates the Dark Web, but the Dark Web is further classified as “a small portion of the Deep Web that has been intentionally hidden and inaccessible through standard web browsers.” Both make up the hidden side of the internet.
Any user who uses the Tor Network can access the Dark Web and who wants to keep their online activities as anonymous as possible.
How to access the Dark Web?
It is really not that difficult. The Dark Web uses the .onion domain suffix, indicating that the particular site you are visiting is an anonymous service only accessed via the Tor Network.
Since you cannot simply access the Dark Web and Tor Network from a regular web browser, the first step you need to take is to download the Tor Browser Package from torproject.org. This will ensure that all web traffic runs through the Tor network and is the first step to anonymous access to the Deep Web.
You can also try using DuckDuckGo. It is a private search engine that can index both surface-level web results and dark web resources. While unlikely, you may be able to find some results when accessing the Dark Web.
The main downside to using DuckDuckGo is that popular surface-level web results are more likely to appear than less-traveled deep web results.
Why should I use Tor and the Deep Web?
Although there are many negative connotations deliberately attached to the Dark Web (the Silk Road as an example), it may also be the ultimate prospect for freedom of expression, privacy, and anonymity online.
The government and the media want to create fear and intimidation by associating Dark Web users with criminals and lawbreakers.
What these media are not expressing to you is that the Dark Web also allows people operating within closed societies to communicate without obstruction and intrusion.
Dark Web data is generally not illegal and is often linked to things like research sources and reputable libraries. Quite another is the Dark Web, which is often used for illicit or anonymous activities.
