thoughts on the dark web and the in-between

The reality of the dark web is extremely new to me, especially the term “the deep web.” I was under the impression, and have always been told, that the dark web is a dangerous place and one where I should never find myself. While I don’t believe I will ever find the desire to browse the dark web, I had no idea of the productivity and usefulness that may come of it. I assumed that it was all criminal and illegal activity and things that maybe are to be kept from the government. However, Sanchez and Griffin go on to describe the dark web as being built of “onion sites” and how minuscule the percentage of this shadowy activity actually is. They mention that these sites are not publicized and are accessed by invitation only, and only make up a tiny slice of what makes the dark web, dark.

This visual posted by Schaffer was particularly disturbing. This graph shows what happens with your data when you visit a site. It’s scary to see how many sites gain access to your data just from accessing a single site, as well as how many sites share your data with each other. Schaffer mentions having ad blockers and privacy controls on all of your browsers, and after seeing this graphic, I might actually look more into that.