For instance, it's the best way for privacy activists to communicate with each other.

It wasn't just a way to buy illegal goods, but it also deanonymized web browsing as a political ethos.īeyond illicit marketplaces like Silk Road, there's much more to see. It trumpeted Tor browsing as the best way to avoid online surveillance. Silk Road was the first website to popularize this method. To many, the deep web is simply a place to buy bizarre and potentially illegal things. Instead, the user must obfuscate their online identity in order to be granted access. Surfing the dark web is certainly not something you should be doing at work or in a public place full of people happy to sneak a peek at your screen.Wired describes the deep web most succinctly as a 'collection of thousands of websites that use anonymity tools like Tor and I2P to hide their IP address.' The key is decentralization, meaning that no regular browser (Chrome, Safari) can access these websites. So if you're going to browse its collection of sites, do so with caution if you wish to remain on the right side of the law. And hidden IP addresses make it more difficult for malware to sneak off sites and infect computers, although there are plenty of services that mask and hide IP addresses on the normal web.īut the dark web does facilitate the activities of hackers and cyber crooks, can be rife with scammers and is full of illegal content that can be easily accessed. It can and does serve a purpose when it comes to helping whistleblowers remain safe and anonymous online. Is the dark web a haven for cyber criminals? Facebook, for example, offers a dark web portal to its social network.

It can also be a font of hard-to-find information not posted on mainstream websites or can act as a way for legitimate sites to offer their services with an extra degree of privacy.

Tor dark web network