The dark web, for the uninitiated among you, is a virtual neighborhood beyond the borders of the normal, everyday internet (which includes the website you're looking at right now). It's somewhere Google and Bing don't index, and you need special tools to get to it.
It's a place where you'll find data leaks and illegal trades, but also legitimate, legal online activities users want to carry out without attracting the attention of law enforcement agencies or governments. It's a part of the internet that's less regulated and more shadowy, for better and for worse.
Piqued your interest? I'm going to explain how to get on the dark web and what you can find there—though of course Lifehacker doesn't endorse doing anything that breaks the law, so I'm not going to tell you how to do something you shouldn't.
The deep web versus the dark web: What’s the difference?
You'll often see these terms used in your travels across the internet, and there's some confusion about what they mean. I'll start with the deep web: That's everything online that isn't indexed by regular search engines, so that includes pages locked behind paywalls, private databases, email archives, company intranets, and so on.
Think about all the parts of the web you can't see without logging in, from academic journals to your Netflix account page: That's the deep web. It accounts for around 90 percent of websites, by some estimates, so we're talking about a substantial chunk of everything that's online.
The dark web, which is what I'm discussing here, is a small subset of the deep web, and refers to websites that are specifically trying to stay out of sight. These pages come with extra protections for user anonymity and data security, and you need special software to access them—you can't get at them through your normal web browser, like you can with much of the rest of the deep web.
Dark web tools and services
The dark web comes with its own set of tools and services, including web browsers and search engines (which I'll get on to in a moment). Part of what makes the dark web the dark web is that you can't get at it through your normal web browser. Nor can you look something up on it via a Google search.
Having a place on the internet that's private and anonymous will of course encourage certain kinds of illicit activities: Hacking tools, drugs, fake passports, porn, firearms, and more are all traded on the dark web. It's a bit like wandering into the sketchiest part of a real life city, with all the associated goings on.
However, there are plenty of legal and legitimate online activities that require privacy and anonymity. The dark web is used by journalists, whistleblowers, and political activists who need the protections that it offers. Anything you need to do that has to be off the books to some extent, for noble or ignoble reasons, can be done on the dark web.
To browse the dark web, you need a dark web browser
To get on the dark web, you need a browser built for the job, and the best in the business is Tor. Tor is a browser engineered for extra security and privacy, and can be used to navigate the normal, surface web as well as the dark web. It blocks trackers, prevents user fingerprinting, encrypts data, and reroutes your browsing so no one can see where in the world you are.
Key to the way Tor works is what's known as onion routing technology. It gets its name from the way it puts several layers of obfuscation between you and the web, like the layers of an onion: Your traffic is bounced between multiple nodes, which means it's not as quick as regular browsing, but also that no one can tell who you are or where you are.
Tor is like the public-facing door to the dark web, and there are even mobile apps for Android and iOS. While there are other browsers you can use to get on the dark web (a quick web search will reveal a few), Tor is the best for most people in terms of the features it offers and the ease with which anyone can make use of it.
A dark web search engine
Open up Tor, and you won't suddenly see the dark web staring back at you. Not only do you need a dark web browser, you need a dark web search engine too. This search engine will get you to the sites you need, though you can also go directly to dark web addresses if you know what they are, as with standard URLs.
DuckDuckGo is the default search engine inside the Tor browser, and once you turn on the Onionize toggle switch in the search box, you're able to use it to find dark web links. These typically come with ".onion" after them, rather than something like ".com" as on the standard web.
Other dark web search engines worth investigating are Ahmia, Torch, NotEvil, and the Onion URL Directory—just type out some keywords for what you're looking for. Some of these sites can be found through regular web browsers, but you'll then need to switch over to Tor once you've got the onion links you want to follow.
Dark web websites
Individual sites on the dark web look much like they do on the regular web, though a lot of them are a bit more rough around the edges. (Presentation and polish isn't quite so important on this part of the internet.) Click on any website link, and it'll appear on screen, with its address at the top.
Some of the websites to look out for on the dark web include mirrors of both the BBC and the ProPublica investigative journalism platforms, built to help inform people who are living in countries where the internet is heavily censored. If you're after secure email, look for the Proton Mail service.
Given the associations that the dark web has and some of the illegal activities that take place on it, you won't find a huge number of well-known websites on there—a lot of the dark web is made up of sites, wikis, and forums maintained by volunteers. However, there's still plenty worth exploring.
What's for sale on the dark web
I've already touched on some of the stuff that you'll find for sale on the dark web: It's a long way from eBay, let me put it like that. Anything you can think of that you shouldn't be downloading or buying, you can usually find it somewhere on the dark web.
For obvious reasons—I don't want to get you or me into trouble, after all—I'm not going to get too specific when it comes to what you can find for sale on the dark web. Transactions are mostly handled via Bitcoin, which matches the ethos of the dark web when it comes to staying private and anonymous. Which isn't to say you should assume anything you do there can't be traced back to you—law enforcement has gotten pretty good at tracking down people who think they've been acting in the shadows.
There aren't many good reasons to move your legitimate shopping activities to the dark web: Because of the way it works, it attracts a lot of scammers and hackers, and there's very little protection for you if you find yourself duped.
Is the dark web illegal?
The dark web itself isn't illegal, and you're not going to get into any trouble just by visiting it—but it's a place where a lot of illegal activities are carried out, because it's much harder for law enforcement agencies to see what's going on there.
You might often see news stories about criminal activity involving the dark web, and because of what's happening in some corners of the dark web, it tends to put off law-abiding companies and users alike. Sections of the dark web are often closed down too, as part of police operations.
With all of that in mind, you need to tread carefully when browsing, in terms of the sites you visit and the other users you interact with. Bear in mind too that laws about freedom of speech and censorship vary from country to country, which is part of the reason the dark web exists in the first place.
Staying on top of the hacker underground
Hackers spend a lot of time on the dark web, and it's not too difficult to get access to hacking tools and data leaks in this part of the internet. However, it's much harder to get at the people who are doing the uploading and downloading.
If you make use of a password manager, then it may come with a feature that monitors the dark web for mentions of your email address and password, or any other personal details. It's something built into the password management services offered by Apple and Google as well, so you don't need to trawl through data leaks manually yourself.
As I've previously said, it's a good idea to keep your interactions with the dark web to a minimum, unless you can absolutely trust the people you're dealing with. You'll often see a sign in stores that says "look, don't touch," and it's not a bad adage to bear in mind as you navigate around the dark web.