brent I'm starting to think intellectual stimulation is not what the deep/dark is for at all, is it?
Nope, it isn't.
The purpose of the deep web, for the most part, is to protect information that is private, proprietary and/or legally protected.
Most of us use the deep web daily -- yesterday, for example, I accessed my bank accounts, obtained proof-of-vaccination from the Wisconsin DHS, made an Amazon purchase, and accessed my medical records. In each of those cases, the visible web page was a sign-in page, which then allowed access to numerous deep web pages (my bank's deep web pages for my account number at least a dozen, for example).
In addition to allowing user/customers to access private information, businesses, institutions and governments use the deep web for intranets and to allow internal/external access to private information and to permit private communications. For example, the enterprise intranet I helped design some years ago provided access to thousands of internal legal documents in multiple languages with translation capabilities, a communications system between the company's lawyers and outside counsel, links to numerous internal, company-wide databases, legal advice/support pages accessible to each of the company's divisions, an emergency response system, and so on. The system took four years to develop, in part because we had to a wait for technology to catch up with our specifications in several key areas.
Twenty years ago, creating that kind of system was pushing the limits of available technology; today such systems are just about everywhere. Students access the deep web to get assignments, participate in school activities, turn in assignments, take tests and communicate with their teachers; academics use the deep web for facilitate peer review of pre-release publications; medical personnel use the deep web to get information concerning patients, medical histories, diseases and injuries; alumni use the deep web to access their records, and so on. The deep web is never-ending, it would seem.
But what of that vast trove of deep web information is suitable for the curious, those seeking intellectual stimulation? I'd suggest very little of it. And which of that information can be obtained by someone other than an authenticated user without running afoul of the law or at least ethical considerations? Again, I'd suggest very little of it. Deep web information is protected for good reason in almost all cases.
The dark web, as I understand it, is a subset of the deep web intended to be used for a variety of purposes, some legitimate and some not. A key component of dark web technology is masking the identity of anyone using dark web sites, and a common component of dark web technology is content encryption, both source and end-to-end. In other words, the dark web is designed and intended to remove all traces that a user has visited it. I do not think that the dark web is the bogeyman of popular imagination. Nonetheless, I elect to say away from it because I have no reason to use it.
