These shadowy areas of the internet are not accessible through mainstream search engines. This is often due to the content on these sites being of an illegal or unpalatable nature. Though the use of browsers that access the dark web and hide your intentions and searches are not always used with bad intentions. This can be used by political candidates who wish to keep their lives private or perhaps those in the public eye that want to keep medical conditions hidden.

Why does it exist

The dark web has come to be for several reasons though the key principles seem to be security, privacy, or freedom. Within mainstream web access, you are bombarded by targeted ads, those that try to censor what you say, and often, all your actions online have you held accountable if they aren’t deemed socially accepted. Hence why the dark web has come to be. The service itself works rather as the internet did way back in the 1990s. It seems like a service that is still under construction, the UI is terrible at the best of times, and a lot of the content that is on offer when you get there is hardly at a professional standard. Those that use this service tend to have a clear purpose for being there. If you are on the dark web for a browse, you may be a little disappointed. This service has long since its conception, been linked to practices like illegal adult contents and other stuff. Although these practices undoubtedly existed before the dark web came to fruition, it is clear that this service is a medium for these practices to fly under the radar.

Is it all bad?

Despite those that abuse the power of a system that allows you to hide from the establishment. There are a number of people that use this for normal activities that require a little more privacy. This may be those in employment that scrutinize their online presence, for them the dark web allows a level of free speech that would otherwise be absent from their daily lives. Allowing them to share their views freely without judgement. This is also a good service for those that wish to stay off the grid. Such as those that want to avoid unwanted attention from stalkers, past lovers, or anyone for that matter.

How do you access the dark web?

Due to the anonymity needed by users of the dark web, as you would expect, accessing it isn’t exactly straight forward. In order to gain access to this service, you need to use a browser called ‘Tor’. What this service does is run your search through a series of proxies to help hide your information. Incredibly, there are search engines that can be used on the service. The most notable and frequently used search engines of this nature include The Hidden Wiki or Grams. Though, what must be said is that these engines often return search results that are very loosely related or completely irrelevant to your search. Rendering them useless for most searches. As we previously stated, you need to know what you’re looking for if you hope to find it on the dark web.

Deep Web Vs Dark Web

You may have heard of the term deep web and be wondering if it is a subsection of the dark web. In fact, the deep web is its own entity entirely. This refers to a website that is possibly hidden from search indexes much like dark web content. Though the key difference is that this content will also be hidden behind a paywall with additional sign-in credentials. The deep web is a massive portion of the entire internet, with its portion said to be estimated at 96-99%. This means that only a fraction of the internet is visible to the general public through search browsers and this is called the clear web. We hope this rundown on the dark web gives you a little more clarity on the subject. Have you ever visited the dark web? Were there any facts or terms that you didn’t know before reading? What shocked you the most? Sources usedhttps://vpnetic.com/dark-webhttps://us.norton.com/internetsecurity-how-to-how-can-i-access-the-deep-web.html

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