Despite the mostly negative connotation of the Dark Web, one new search for PreciseSecurity revealed that over 30% of North Americans, one in three Americans, regularly used it in 2019.
Last year, a growing number of people began using the Dark Web as a way to keep their online activity hidden from governments and telecommunications companies.
The Dark Web is made up of Internet sites that cannot be found through traditional search engines. Instead, users must rely on specific software such as the Tor browser, special configurations or special authorizations to access these sites.
PreciseSecurity's survey also certifies that North America is the leading region in the world in daily use of the Dark Web. The company's findings revealed that 26% of users in North America admitted to using it daily, while another 7% accessed it at least once a week.
Everyone wants to go to the Dark Web
North America is firmly in the lead, I was saying, but I must also say that Latin America is not that far behind with its second place. To think that as many as 21% of users say they visit the Dark Web every day (and 13% every week) is staggering.
Europe, for its part, holds on to the podium: its third place means 17% of citizens use the Dark Web daily and 11% indulge in it at least once a week.
Why use it?
The survey also investigated the reasons that push users to choose these "dark" paths. By far the most common reason is online anonymity. Nearly 40% of respondents have used it in the past year to stay anonymous online. 26% said they had used it to retrieve content not available from their country (although it would be easier to use a VPN, which gives pause for thought).
What is the Dark Web for? Even those who do not like it would like to do it
Of those surveyed who don't use Tor or access the "deep" internet, nearly 50 percent of respondents said they didn't do so because they didn't know how, while 45 percent said they had no reason to.
In fact, the Dark Web hosts a thriving black market of all sorts: special material, pornography and drugs, but also (perhaps above all) information.
It is a mare magnum much larger than the visible web (the so-called "surface web"), but for this very reason it can be very dangerous.
Apparently, human beings are always fascinated by a "dark side", and the Dark Web is no exception. The near future will see it increasingly "integrated" into the citizens' philosophy.
