Deep, Dark, and Surface Web

Surface Web: This is the web that you and most people are already familiar with. Major websites like Google, Amazon, Twitter and Facebook. Sites on the surface web are “indexed,” which means they can be easily located via search engines. Activity on the surface web can also be easily tracked by advertisers.

Dark Web: The “private internet” includes encrypted websites that are hidden from search engines and other indexing services. While not everything on the Dark Web is, strictly speaking, illegal, this is the place to go if you run shady operations like data laundering and cybercrime. Accessing the Dark Web requires special encryption software like Tor Browser.

Deep Web: The term deep web is often used interchangeably with Dark Web, but the definitions are different. The deep web simply includes all online data that is not registered with search engines. This includes back-end data for most of the world’s biggest websites and platforms, as well as encrypted information stored on private networks and cloud servers.