So I understand the general idea of the much broader deep web being stuff that isn’t indexed by search engines but I have a lot of questions about how the “dark web” works:
1. Where is all the data stored? I get that companies would store their own deep web data but would people who want to create a dark web site need to have their own servers to store it?
2. How are you supposed to find things? If this is stuff you have to look for specifically what do people mean when they say “I stumbled upon this really messed up thing on the dark web” etc.
3. How does something like the tor browser allow you to access stuff that isn’t indexed, how does it find it
4. If you use a tor browser could you technically access anything not indexed? Like if you knew what to look up you could access someone’s personal account on a surface website? I feel like the answer to that is no, but if so then, why
These questions definitely make me look questionable but I promise I’m just fascinated by how the dark web can even function
In: Technology
> Where is all the data stored? I get that companies would store their own deep web data but would people who want to create a dark web site need to have their own servers to store it?
No different from the common web. Normal servers.
> How are you supposed to find things? If this is stuff you have to look for specifically what do people mean when they say “I stumbled upon this really messed up thing on the dark web” etc.
Usually lists of links. It’s hard to actually stumble on much there. You start on something better known like the hidden wiki (some instances/versions of it are on the clearnet) that has other sources. Overall it’s just full of shady sites, it gets boring quickly if you don’t have a purpose to use those sites.
> How does something like the tor browser allow you to access stuff that isn’t indexed, how does it find it
It doesn’t help. You have to find the addresses via other sources, just like on the clearnet.
> If you use a tor browser could you technically access anything not indexed?
Any browser can access unindexed stuff as long as you know the URL and it’s accessible via URL only. The only difference with the Tor Browser is that it also allows browsing the `.onion` sites that are on the onion network which anonymizes servers and visitors a little bit.
> Like if you knew what to look up you could access someone’s personal account on a surface website?
Nope, if it’s only shown when you’re logged in, that’s it. A browser can’t bypass that.
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