The Dark Side of the Web

Barence writes "Beneath the web pages indexed by Google lies an online world that few know exists. It's a realm of huge, untapped reserves of valuable information containing sprawling databases, hidden websites and murky forums. It's a world where academics and researchers might find the data required to solve some of mankind's biggest problems, but also where criminal syndicates operate, and terrorist handbooks and child pornography are freely distributed. Interested? You're not alone. The deep web and its 'darknets' are a new battleground for those who want to uphold the right to privacy online, and those who feel that rights need to be sacrificed for the safety of society. The deep web is also the new frontier for those who want to rival Google in the field of search." The melodrama is tempered, though: "The deep web isn’t half as strange or sinister as it sounds. In computer-science speak, it refers to those portions of the web that, for whatever reason, have been invisible to conventional search engines such as Google."

Comments

Terrorism

[Taco Cowboy]

I find it ironic that in the online world there are places where the Terrorists and those who support them are calling us, the Freedom Loving People, terrorists !

By the original Terrorists I mean those who strap bombs to themselves and go KABOOM ! taking themselves with innocent people around them.

What I find ironic is THEY call us terrorists !!

Re:Terrorism

[Anonymous Coward]

"I mean really, what in god's name made the UN believe that it was ok to throw a few million Jews in the middle of several different groups of people that hate them?"

The U.N. had nothing to do with it. Jews had lived there for three thousand years; it's where Jews come from. Jews lived throughout the Middle East for two thousand years, with a significant minority population in all of the Arab states until the pogroms following Israel's independence. The "few million" Jews moving to Israel were refugees fleeing persecution in Europe who bought the land they moved onto and had every right to move there. The Arabs at the time were not opposed to Zionism (the progressive idea of social equality between the Jews and everyone else) except for a few rogue right-wingers who started riots, gained control of the mosques through violence, and were continually appeased and promoted by the British occupation until they became the predominant force. The 1948 war came at the end of a thirty year pro-war propaganda campaign that included the executions of dozens of Arab leaders who supported peace with the Jews. The U.N. only signed off on the deal after Israel survived what the Arab League had promised would be the greatest massacre since the Mongol invasions.

"Then the US helps arm them to the teeth"

You misspelled Czechoslovakia. It's not hard to do but you're off by like thirteen letters.

"and supports israeli incursions into Palestine"

Given that "Palestine" is the old western imperialist name for what the natives call Eretz Yisrael, "israeli incursions into Palestine" is a contradiction in terms. That's like france invading Gaul or japan invading Nippon.

It amazes me how little understanding of the Middle East people tend to have and how much anti-Jewish propaganda has penetrated the mainstream. Complaining about the Israeli presence in "Palestine" is like complaining about the Negro presence in Rhodesia.

Iraq needs help to rebuild, and what does the US do? Go fuck yourself Iraq

Did you miss the point where Iraq outright invaded and conquered another country and the Saudis called the U.S. for assistance, or did you intentionally leave that out because it ruins your point? And no, in case you have heard this misinformation, the U.S. never pledged neutrality on the invasion. April Glaspie said the U.S. had no position on the current border dispute which was Iraq's accusation of Kuwaiti slant drilling.

Re:Terrorism

[BluenoseJake]

I'm not advocating killing any Jews, I'm wondering the wisdom of putting several million of them in a place where everybody hates them, then arming them to the teeth, further antagonizing their neighbours. It would have been far more intelligent to give them say a piece of Canada (I live in Canada, so unlike the UN, I am not offering something I don't own). Oh, and right back at you.

It's hidden on a purpose

[Artem S. Tashkinov]

From what I've seen and heard this 'hidden' information is hidden on a purpose - most such sites I've ever encountered are trafficking (child) porn, software, audio and video - there's next to zero informational value in this undernet. As someone once said "Information wants to be free" and if it isn't let it die.

The real problem which this article doesn't even touch is that sometimes it's getting very hard to find the information buried in millions of pages Google returns to your query.

Re:It's hidden on a purpose

[History's Coming To]

Loads of stuff is hidden on purpose...config files, site member info, etc etc. I "accidentally hacked" a law company's MySQL DB once because their phpmyadmin wasn't hidden properly and showed up on a Google search for an obscure error message I searched for. Hidden-From-Google != Nasty-Child-Pornographers......

Re:It's hidden on a purpose

[Anonymous Coward]

[troll]

Until the law grants me preemptive indemnity if I pull out a pistol and double tap the perp, no questions asked I'd probably walk. I have no civic duty to my neighbors--over half are on welfare, don't work, and are living off of my taxes. I'm not exaggerating--I'm in the middle of an apartment complex, and of the 8 apartments around me, there's one employed middle-aged woman.

Hell, I nearly got in trouble once for giving directions to a kid that was clearly lost in the supermarket and telling him "we're going to get you to a store clerk, they're who you should go to when you're lost--somebody in a uniform"--fucking overzealous mother thought I was going to sodomize her crotchfruit because I talked to some teary eyed rugrat and pointed him to the clerk not 50 feet away. Until people go and punch out the bitch that gives me the evil eye and snatches her kid away after she comes running from three aisles away--I'm not taking the fucking chance. My freedom is worth more than their kid's life.

Human duty? They aren't humans. Call the police, let them deal with it. Their kids? They're being raised by animals too. See case above.

Don't get me wrong, there's two neighbors--I'd go out of the way for. But most of them...would be left to the same harm they'd leave me. Hell, one of the damned idiots had their retarded kid stomp a duckling to death last year. CYS/CPS/Police/SPCA did jack shit. If I see somebody throw that budding serial killer in a trunk it won't be soon enough.

So yes, to hell with "social responsibility"--YOUR society created this crap, I just live in it. The person above isn't a sociopath--they're a gainful member of the society you live in. You want to help--do violence to the paranoids that threaten people who assist. Maybe in 15 to 20 years I'll consider rejoining.

Time Travel?

[scross]

The article says it was "Posted on 3 Sep 2010 at 15:47". Unless I've missed something, we're still in March 2010...

this article is a bad idea.

[SinShiva]

there is no mystery to this 'deep web'. massive data reserves? quite likely. personal, but unsecured servers hosting copyrighted content? even more likely.

This kind of article will only make things worse for a future defendant trying to explain he wasn't coordinating with 'the deep' in the distribution of his movies from his computer to his Mythbuntu box.

Re:http://www.robotstxt.org/

[KamuZ]

But not all robots honor the file you see...

Adopt a long term perspective...

[arcite]

Just maybe not everyone in the world wants to be Google's bitch and allow them to mine their precious information for profit. Information may want to be free, but information is also power. Secrets are valuable to those who hold them, and in a near future world where information becomes increasingly more valuable, those who hold the secrets will be the most powerful.

Now just ask yourself, are you willing to submit to the likes of Google and give up the right and freedom to decide what to do with your information? Your secrets?

Do we continue to sell our individuality, our identity so cheaply?

Why include Deep Web?

[BarryNorton]

Darknets are a concern. What is the link with the Deep Web? The only connection seems to be that they're both unindexed by search engines.

I thought the article might get to the point by the last page, but it was still talking about child protection and terrorism (in company databases???) I had wondered whether this confusion was down to an incautious academic, but the doesn't seem to suggest it: http://ai.arizona.edu/research/terror/

BBS, IRC

[roman_mir]

If you still remember how to use those BBSs, the IRCs, then you can get back into the 'darknet' world I guess, though today it is also about appearing/disappering websites and botnets. Botnets like Zeus got that whole 'FreeNet' idea and have their own implementation, only it's not exactly free.