The internet is vast and constantly growing, however, the majority of daily usage only scratches its surface. Google, Yahoo, and other search engines only index approximately 5% of the data available on the internet. To access the other 95% requires customized digging through individual sites, subpages, restricted access journals or archives. This 95% is called the “deep web.” Everything we do online is visible, traceable, and possibly being monitored. Everything, except for what is done in the areas of the deep web that are masked by the “dark web.”
The “dark web” is concealed through a series of identity masking layers allowing it to be accessed and interacted with anonymously. This anonymity is achieved through special encryption software called TOR, an acronym for “The Onion Router”, which when installed on your computer, appears and acts like your standard browser. Instead of routing a connection through a direct line, TOR routes everything through a series of encrypted computers all over the world, bouncing around randomly before it reaches its host destination. This makes the origin of the data or the people searching for it, unknowable. So, while a search query might originate in New York, its search traffic can appear to be coming from random points all over the world, making the location of origin location essentially untraceable.
To learn more about the dark web, please click here to watch a short video.
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