this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2023
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Technology
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I've always wondered what it would be like, but I've also heard so many creepy stories about it I just don't want someone hacking my bank because I'm an idiot. So I stay away from it. I wish I was more tech savy.
Are you confusing Tor and something like deep/dark web? Because Tor itself is just a webbrowser, it's basically a Firefox with some modifications for stricter privacy.
Possibly, I know Tor is a browser but because it can be used to access deep/dark web I don't trust myself with it. 100% out of acknowledged ignorance yes
I promise you that like 90% of the creepy stories you've heard are people either exaggerating or just straight-up lying to sound cool on the internet. The kind of stuff that actually needs to operate over the TOR network doesn't exactly want to be easily discoverable by normal people.
You're no more likely to accidentally stumble across illegal / dangerous content while using TOR than you are while using any other browser.
Thanks for the advice! I'll keep in mind.
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Thanks for the info! I'll save this comment for further study.
Hate to burst your bubble but many of the stories are just that, stories. Vast majority of the onion sites out there are either forums like 4chan or hobbyist sites like the old days of the internet.
Illegal websites do exist but they're rare and hard to find, they also are subject to being taken down. They're nothing like the stories though. In fact majority of the websites that exist when you search for these topics are just bitcoin scams, i.e. a livestream website that asks you to pay $200 in bitcoin to enter, almost certainly a scam because livestreaming over Tor is terrible due to low spead and it breaks the anonymity due to generating tons of unique traffic.
TL;DR Tor is a tool that can be used for privacy on the clearnet it can also be used to host your own onion sites. Dark web stories do have a small element of truth to them but are mostly scary stories to tell in the dark.
Why, no, thank you, I don't have any appreciation for this bubble you are bursting. I figured some had to be just tales but it's hard to know exactly how much of it is bs. So thanks.