The Deep Web Explained - In 3 Simple Ideas

Throughout the week, I’ve covered ways of keeping your privacy online. Now, I’ll cover the ultimate world of privacy online – the Deep Web.

You must have heard of this term, surrounded by some weird reverence, as if referring to some shadowy realm of strange things.

Others might refer to it as bad place, where every online crime happens as if plotted and carried out by an evil hive mind.
Others think of it simply a place where total and complete shut-ins like to waste all their time.

The truth is far greater than that. I will now give you the 3 pillars that will let you shed some light in the minds of these people.
Let’s get started, shall we?

1 – The Deep Web is something you use regularly

Shocker, right?

Tell me something – are you logged in on Steemit? Or is your email open on some other folder? Then congrats – you’re on the Deep Web!

You see, the Deep Web can be defined simply as this – “anything your search browser can’t find naturally.”

I can’t Google my way into your email account – nor can you do it to me. Therefore, our email addresses are both in the Deep Web.

You’d think that this would be smaller than the “normal” Web, right? Dead wrong. The Deep Web is likely many times greater than the original. By about some 500 times. And it’s growing by the minute.

There are also many kinds of content, such as websites that can’t be accessed by a web browser. Surely these are the evil sites one can find on the Deep Web, right?

Wrong.

2 – It’s mostly harmless

As I’ve said, the Deep Web is anything your browser can’t find. This can take the shape of many things.

Website content that demands login and registration technically count as Deep Web. Material that changes according to IP address also does.

However, one of the greatest parts of the Deep Web is definitely content that needs to be accessed using a special browser, like the Tor browser, which I spoke of yesterday.

While some of this content is indeed illegal at most, and disturbing and bizarre in the least, there is a lot of room for good content in Deep Web.

Most of it comes from people who face a lot of censorship in their home countries and find in the Deep Web a substitute for the normal Internet.

You can find all kinds of blogs in the Deep Web. From book clubs who pride themselves in analyzing dystopian works of art like 1984, to Neuromancer, to many other works of literature, to blogs for people who enjoy spanking (yes, this is a thing), you can find everything over there.

Here is a list of such sites, for your viewing pleasure :)

That said, it’s now time to talk about the elephant in the room. If the Deep Web isn’t where you find criminal activity online, then where?

3 – It’s NOT the Dark Web

The haven of criminal activity online is called the Dark Web. It can be considered a part of the Deep Web – a much smaller part, that works differently.

You see, while the Deep Web is content that can’t be accessed through a web browser, the Dark Web necessarily needs the Tor browser in order to be accessed.

That’s because these sites work on top of darknets – I won’t bore you with the technical details, but these networks essentially can only be accessed by browsers tailor made to do this. The Tor browser happens to be such a one. There are others, but I’ll leave that to you to find out.

As for the content that can be found in the Dark Web… well, it’s mostly illegal, yes.

From botnets, to black markets for illegal drugs, to hacking groups that offer their services for a price, you can find it all there. There are scams, puzzles… and slowly, social media sites are beginning to show up there too.

One of the most controversial parts of the Dark Web is indeed child pornography – but due to the ability by some law enforcement agencies to somehow crack through the Tor browser, some of the people behind this are slowly being caught and jailed.

That wraps this up!

Hopefully, I’ve helped demystify some of the erroneous information surrounding this topic.

It’s worth letting you know that there are many initiatives underway destined to clening up the criminal activity found in the Dark Web, I’ll leave it up to you to find out!

And that wraps up the week for me! And I have a sad announcement :(

I’m going on vacation next week, for the next 2-3 weeks. I very likely won’t have much in the way of Internet access during that time, so I’ll take the chance to relax.

I want to thank each and every one of you for the great time I’ve had on Steemit so far! I hope to see you all again in some weeks, and I promise I’ll return better than ever!

In the meanwhile, sound off in the comments below, if you have some question or criticism, I want to hear it!

Steem on guys!