Deep Web: Deep Web

Watching this documentary opened my eyes to a situation I was not familiar with. Discussing it with my students was a great conversation genarator and we learned a lot about the topic. 

What we commonly call the Web is really just the surface. Beneath that is a vast, mostly uncharted ocean called the Deep Web. The Deep Web (also known as the undernet, invisible Web and hidden Web, among other monikers) consists of data that you won't locate with a simple Google search.

No one really knows how big the Deep Web really is, but it's hundreds (or perhaps even thousands) of times bigger that the surface Web. This data isn't necessarily hidden on purpose. It's just hard for current search engine technology to find and make sense of it.

  

http://www.popsci.com/dark-web-revealed

You thought you knew the Internet. But sites such as Facebook, Amazon, and Instagram are just the surface. There’s a whole other world out there: the Deep Web
.

It’s a place where online information is password protected, trapped behind paywalls, or requires special software to access—and it’s massive. By some estimates, it is 500 times larger than the surface Web that most people search every day. Yet it’s almost completely out of sight. Much of the Deep Web’s unindexed material lies in mundane data­bases such as LexisNexis or the rolls of the U.S. Patent Office. But like a Russian matryoshka doll, the Deep Web contains a further hidden world, a smaller but significant community where malicious actors unite in common purpose for ill. 

I. Work in pairs:

Talk to your friends about the following questions:

1. What do you use the Internet for?

2. How much time do you spend on the Internet?

3. What are the risks of using the Internet?

4. What is the good side of the Internet?

5. Should the government control or forbid certain sites? Why?


II. Do you think buying the following items on the Internet is possible? If it is possible, should they be forbidden? How and why?


DRUGS - FORGED PAPERS - EXPLOSIVES - AMMUNITION - HITMEN - HUMAN ORGANS


III. According  to this informative site http://www.popsci.com/dark-web-revealed , here a few things you can buy on the Deep Web. Discuss if and how this trade can be addressed. What should happen to the people who run those sites?

1. Drugs

Individual or dealer-level quantities of illicit and prescription drugs of every type are available in the digital underground. The Silk Road, the now-shuttered drug superstore, did $200 million of business in 28 months.

2. Forged Papers

Passports, driver’s licenses, citizenship papers, fake IDs, college diplomas, immigration documents, and even diplomatic ID cards are available on illicit marketplaces such as Onion Identity Services. A U.S. driver’s license costs approximately $200, while passports from the U.S. or U.K. sell for a few thousand bucks.

3. Firearms, Ammunition, and Explosives

Weapons such as handguns and C4 explosives are procurable on the Dark Web. Vendors ship their products in specially shielded packages to avoid x-rays or send weapons components hidden in toys, musical instruments, or electronics.

4. Hitmen

Service providers—including a firm named for the H.P. Lovecraft monster C’thulhu—advertise “permanent solutions to common problems.” For everything from private grudges to political assassinations, these hired guns accept bitcoin as payment and provide photographic proof of the deed.

5 . Human Organs: In the darker corners of the Dark Web, a vibrant and gruesome black market for live organs thrives. Kidneys may fetch $200,000, hearts $120,000, livers $150,000, and a pair of eyeballs $1,500.

 IV. Watch the movie segment and discuss the questions:

1. How does the Deep Web work? Talk about the examples they give and the risks that the Deep Web can cause to society. Finally, discuss how the governments can change this situation. Should there be Web restrictions or control, like in North Korea and China, for example? Or is it just the consequence of democracy and freedom of thoughts? Prepare a speech to justify your points of view.

MOVIE SEGMENT DOWNLOAD - DEEP WEB