Most of us have heard about the deep web, less of us can tell what the deep web contains, and only a few of us can say they have been in the deep web themselves. Even though we know so much about the internet, the content of the deep web mostly remains untouched, and even crazier is that we don’t want to touch the bottom of the deep web. But why? Is the deep web this dangerous?
First of all, let’s make clear what the deep web is. The deep web refers to internet content that is not indexed by search engines, such as Google, Bing, Yahoo etcetera. Using Google, for instance, is like looking at the sky: we only see clouds, that is all we can ‘find’ while searching. But behind those clouds there is so much more we can’t see but surely is there. The only thing we see is clouds but there is a much larger universe behind them. So we only find the websites that are indexed by search engines but there is a much larger deep web behind them. To clarify, if we added up all web pages indexed by all search engines, this would be a small 4% of the total web. The other 96% is the deep web.
So why is the deep web considered as dangerous? This is because everything on the deep web is untraceable. Criminals take advantage of this by using marketplaces such as ‘Silk Road’. The concept of Silk Road is similar to famous marketplaces such as Ebay.com except the fact that on the Silk Road people sell drugs and weapons or even hire contract killers. But does this make the deep web dangerous? I think the deep web can be considered as dangerous. Since there is minimal security, people that don’t know what they are doing out there should stay away from the deep web. Since in the depths of the deep web, there are hackers and many viruses.
Dear Xander, thanks for your post! Since your blog got me curious, I searched a bit about the deep web (of course, what I could find was on the face web). The main advantages I think is that it contains valuable information for scholars, and for people who live under certain regimes or oppression. As deep web connections are anonymous and difficult to monitor, facilitating access to current news from around the globe without government filtering, “interpretation” or censorship is possible. However, these are of course just a few advantages, and the disadvantages are way scarier, as it can expose your computer to malware and hackers. Since the deep web is anonymous, I think it is also more likely to be used by criminals and terrorists, which makes me think of a blog recently posted about AIVD wanting to have access to our Whatsapp conversations. With something such as the Deep Web existing, I highly doubt they will find valuable information on whatsapp, but that national security agencies have to search further.
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-disadvantages-risks-deep-search-engines-74087.html
http://techin.oureverydaylife.com/advantages-disadvantages-risks-deep-search-engines-4164.html
http://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/8719/deep-web/the-good-and-the-bad-of-the-deep-web.html
Interesting post Xander. In my opinion the deep web is a large phenomenon, which is definitely dangerous. Weapons for terrorist attacks have been acquired through the deep web, and several taboos occur, for example child pornography. It’s a gateway for anonymous interaction, which gives people that don’t want to be known a place to get together. Of course not all of the deep web is dangerous, highly secured files are also stored in there, like government files or medical histories. The scary part is the so called dark web. The place where the illegal stuff happens. How do you think authorities should react to the dark web? Should they actively stop it or just let it happen?
Interesting post, about an even more interesting phenomenon called the deep web. I like your comparison between Google and the sky. However, later on you say the deep web is untraceable. Is it true that only giving a webpage a ‘index: no-follow’ attribute makes it deep web? I’m no expert as this, but I think you need a specific webbrowser to enter this deep-web too. So perhaps you could even extend this comparison to some kind of parallel universe!