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What is the Deep Web?
But first of all, what is the Deep Web?
Simply put, the Deep Web is the private side of the World Wide Web. These pages are not indexed by search engines and are often hidden behind passwords or subscriptions. If you access it directly, you may be redirected or receive an error message. Even if you're already using the Deep Web, it's different from the more familiar Surface Web.
Surface web
Pages that are indexed by search engines are part of the web surface. Examples include traditional web pages, blog posts, and forums.
Choosing a video to watch on the YouTube homepage is a very open process. Anyone can handle it. The web address of this video and the page on which it is located are, for the most part, the same for everyone.
To access the Surface Web, all you need is an internet connection and a web browser. There may be slight differences in the layout of the page depending on your geographic location or device. But whether you're in Japan, the United States, or Sweden (maybe not always in China), anyone can access the video directly.
And once the crawlers have visited it, people can find it by entering relevant terms into search engines.
Deep Web
On the other hand, the Deep Web is not open to everyone. If you have a YouTube account, you already know your dashboard. Here you can change settings, manage playlists, and even create your own channel.
Imagine for a moment that someone could load these pages simply by entering a web address in their browser or finding them after a quick Google search. It would be a security nightmare. People's accounts and personal data would be stolen on a regular basis.
That's why browsing the Deep Web is private. Through a combination of dynamic delivery, server permissions, redirections, and Password protection, only certain people can access certain areas of the deep Internet.
For example, only you can access your online bank account with your password. Even top banking staff cannot connect to it. Your password is encrypted. Until you share it, no one else knows it.
On the other hand, bank security personnel will have their own Deep Web Administration area that the public does not have access to. This may allow them to see your transactions in case of fraud, but there are all sorts of restrictions. They can't add new money or move your money the way you do.
What's on the Deep Web?
Common Deep Web sites include:
- Toll sites and membership sites
- Social media user dashboards
- Geo-restricted content
- Internal sites of companies and organizations
- Bank and email accounts
- Scientific and academic databases
- Medical records
Interestingly, the Deep Web accounts for approximately 96% of the Internet. The Surface web includes onlybetween 1 and 4%. Some parts of the deep internet have never even been accessed by humans. It's full of coding and programming languages that communicate with servers and process data.
Then there are the pages that are on the border between the surface web and the deep web. If you've ever worked with WordPress or other content management systems, you know that a static login page exists.
Most people don't know that this page exists and wouldn't enter the correct login details if they found it by chance. However, unless additional security measures have been taken, the page is still available to anyone. Search engines even occasionally index pages of this type.
Due to insufficient security and permissions, numerous private or useless pages end up on the surface.
How do I access the Deep Web?
Even if you're wondering how to access the Deep Web, you've probably already done it. When you check your emails or your Twitter feed, this is an access to the Deep Web, because it is specially reserved for you.
People can access the Deep Web on iPhone or Android through a mobile browser, just like they do on a desktop browser. There is no dedicated deep web browser.
Unless you have permission, accessing someone else's email or social media accounts is illegal. It's also nearly impossible, unless you steal your password or find a security vulnerability on the site. Businesses hire White Hat Hackers to access Deep Web pages and test for weaknesses, so that the Black Hat Hackers do not exploit them.
Other Deep Web sites are available to anyone, but are removed from the surface and cannot be found by search engines. Some local library sites work this way. To find a book in their catalog, you must first browse the site with an internal search function.
Whatever the search is carried out, a unique query will be created in their database and a dynamic results page will be proposed. Even a book title page does not have a static page and cannot be navigated by clicking links from the home page. You can only access it through a deep web search.
Major web search engines like Google and Yahoo can only crawl and index pages through links. These provide the path, while the link text (anchor text) helps define the subject. In general, the more links that point to a page, the better the page ranks in the results.
If there are no links or if the site has deliberately blocked search engine robots, the page falls into the Deep Web.
Geo-Restrictions: How to Access Deep Web Content
There are areas of the Internet that are considered to be the Deep Web for some, but not for others. For example, severe restrictions on internet access in China have blocked large parts of the internet that people in most other countries can freely access. Local search engines don't offer these links.
Geo-restriction is a common experience: news sites and streaming services offer different content to different users depending on their geographical location. Or they block access to it altogether.
Luckily, this content isn't totally out of reach. The use of a VPN service Or of a proxy may give the impression that you are in the required geographic area. While this is frowned upon, many people outside the United States use such tools to access American content on Netflix andother streaming sites.
Deep Web vs Dark Web
In recent years, the Dark Web (sometimes called the darknet) has received considerable attention due to the growth of illegal markets like the Silk Road and its imitators. These markets are known for trading drugs, firearms, and stolen data. The image of an anonymous and lawless wild West, populated by criminals and odious content such as child pornography, has been strengthened.
Unfortunately, there is some truth in this statement. Un 2016 article revealed that out of 2,723 dark websites analyzed, 57% were based on illicit content and illegal activities.
Indeed, whistleblowers, journalists, the military, and intelligence services also use the Dark Web for the good of all, while protecting their identity.
While the term Dark Web has been used interchangeably with the Deep Web, it is technically a subset. The Dark Web is only a small part of the Deep Web.
Dark Web browser
Both the Dark Web and the Deep Web are not indexed by ordinary search engines. The key difference is that most of the Deep Web is still accessible by a regular web browser.
The same cannot be said for the Dark Web, which uses additional encryption and its own protocols. It also has its own top level domain, .onion. THEIP address The server's underlying location and location are hidden, and you also need a specific web browser called Tor (The Onion Routing) to open it. You can't access Onion sites safely without Tor.
Also, when using Tor, there is no comprehensive search engine to find Dark Websites. Some directories and sites mimic the search experience, but they tend to focus on niche topics. They are often outdated and certainly do not have as broad an indexing as that of Google.
Part of the nature of the dark web is changing addresses and moving things around for greater security. Maintaining accurate search engines is a huge challenge.
It's much more common for users to learn the precise address of an Onion site and visit it directly. Ironically, you can find lots of Onion URLs on the Surface Web, but you can't use them there.
Tor uses a series of proxy servers maintained by volunteers to hide the sites you visit. Your IP address cannot be identified or tracked, and no browsing history is generated. This creates a slow and unreliable browsing experience. But those who use the dark web tolerate compromise to protect their identity and the possibility of engaging in illegal activities.
Tor also allows you to surf anonymously on deep web areas you have access to and on the regular surface web, as long as you don't connect to personal accounts. It's similar to using a service VPN, and applying both solutions gives you as much security as possible.
How do you access the deep web without Tor
If you want to access the dark side of the deep web without Tor, you can use a dark web proxy site. These are sites that you can visit with a regular browser like Chrome that connects to the Tor network. 4everproxy.com provides this service.
Please note that these browser-based proxies cannot provide the same level of anonymity and may make the process even slower. They're not as secure as Tor because they can record who used them.
Is the deep web illegal?
You might be wondering is it illegal to access the Deep Web? Sometimes yes, sometimes no.
Just because a page isn't accessible through links or hasn't been discovered by search engines doesn't mean it's private or illegal.
You might think of our previous example of a dynamic local library catalog as Deep Web content, but it's still open to the public. Likewise, unknown and partially hidden login pages are only illegal if you attempt to crack the username and password. It's rare, but you can accidentally stumble upon such a page without malicious intent.
When is the Deep Web illegal?
Accessing the Deep Web is illegal if you don't have permission. It is in fact a hack, although prosecution generally depends on whether the hacker uploads or modifies data on the system. This is especially true if the intention is fraud or blackmail.
For example, it's illegal to access someone else's email account. Things quickly get serious if you take information from these emails to make a financial profit.
Of course, if you access your own email, it's not illegal, but it's still an example of using the Deep Web.
Illegality between Deep Web and Dark Web
Even venturing into the dark web is not inherently illegal. Despite popular belief, there are “onion” sites that do not host or engage in criminal activity. You only cross the line when you are actively breaking the law, for example by buying fake identity documents in an illegal market.
There are also gray areas. A whistleblower who discloses information to a journalist may technically be breaking the law, but they may also be exposing wrongdoing committed by a company or a public body.
Summary
Today, we asked the following question: what is the Deep Web? You should now have a better understanding of the huge amount of web content that is not known to search engines or the average user. Now you know how to access the Deep Web and why it exists in the first place.
We also explored the difference between the dark web and the deep web and how the dark web takes anonymity to the next level. While the Dark Web is a subset of the Deep Web, the terms are not interchangeable.
