Surprisingly, Tor was created with financial support from the US government, which wanted to promote the free flow of information. This technology has allowed the creation of websites devoted to illegal activities that are difficult for the authorities to trace and shut down. Tor allows the creation of hidden services, websites that use the Tor network to hide their physical location. According to documents released by Ed Snowden, even the NSA has struggled to unmask Tor users. The process makes it almost impossible for anyone to trace the traffic back to you. When you browse the web using a Tor-based browser, your communications are automatically bounced off of several Tor servers before they reach their destination.

They're run by volunteers seeking to bolster privacy rights.

The Tor network consists of thousands of servers located all over the world. Tor, which stands for 'the onion router,' is a technology that allows people to browse the web and access online services without revealing their identities. What's Tor? Why is it important for the dark web? The same technologies used by drug dealers and child pornographers to hide their identity can also be used by whistleblowers and dissidents in repressive regimes. It's important to remember that the technologies used to facilitate 'dark web' activities aren't inherently good or bad. People use the dark web for a variety of purposes: buying and selling drugs, discussing hacking techniques and selling hacking services, trading child pornography, and so forth.

But there are also sites that don't rely on Tor, such as password-protected forums where hackers trade secrets and stolen credit card numbers, that can also be considered part of the dark web. Usually, these sites are guarded by encryption mechanisms such as Tor that allow users to visit them anonymously. T he dark web is a general term for the seedier corners of the web, where people can interact online without worrying about the watchful eye of the authorities. Here's what the dark web is, how it works, and why it's not going away any time soon. 2014 saw the continued growth of the dark web, a collection of underground websites that allow people to engage in often-illegal activities beyond the reach of law enforcement.

Underground tor websites