The Tor browser; however, uses a very strong encryption, which is illegal in some countries. If you want extra security, routing your connection through a VPN, and then using the Tor Browser to access the Darknet provides even more security than using the Tor Browser. Basically, the dark web is simply a version of the Internet you can access using the Tor browser alone, and in which it is nearly impossible to identify the users and owners of websites there. Some people just choose to avoid sharing any information on the web, and they use the Tor network to access regular websites outside of the dark web, or check news sites and forums inside the dark web.
The Tor Project says of the 2 million people who use the Tor network each day, only 1.5% are accessing hidden, or dark, websites. While Tor is known for allowing people to visit the dark web, the majority of Tor users are just using a browser to access the surface web (the regular Internet). Many users now take advantage of the browsers anonymization software to browse both the Internet and deeper parts of the network in private.
New technologies such as encryption and anonymization browser software, Tor, now allow anyone to delve into the deep dark if interested. With police authorities encroaching on many of the sites using the anonymization browser software around the world, the danger is obvious that you could be targeted by a government simply by visiting a dark site. Deep Web sites also use Tor (or similar software like I2P, the invisible internet project) to stay anonymous, meaning that you cannot know who runs them, or where they are hosted.
In fact, Facebook, The New York Times, and even now, the CIA all have sites on the deep web, hosting onion versions of their pages, which are accessible through a Tor browser. Short for Onion Router, the analogy to an onion being a layer of encryption in which all darknet traffic is covered, Tor is so ubiquitous in the darknet community that even big sites like Facebook and The New York Times host onion versions of their pages.
The Tor browser references The Onion Router, a network which bounces your traffic around randomly-placed nodes, wrapping it each time with encryption, making your traffic hard to trace on its own; the Onion Router is managed and accessed via the Tor browser. The Tor Browser uses an onion router to bounce your signals through other Tor users across the globe, thus pseudo-anonymizing you while accessing the Darknet.
You can use the dedicated web browser called pedestrian (the daily web that you and I know and love) anonymously, or you can use it to access the Darknet. While a special browser called Tor gives you access to sites in the Tor ecosystem, you can also use Tor to surf the surface web, taking advantage of its encryption to enjoy added security and privacy.
Essentially, Tor is a network of servers (or nodes) your traffic is routed through in order to obscure the origins and destinations of site requests from anyone listening to your connection, or to the connections of sites you are trying to access. If you are using a Tor browser to access a stock site, it offers users protection and anonymity: They hop in the Tor cloud, this onion space, and out again, effectively, somewhere else, their identities and locations hidden. You do not need special tools or a Darknet browser to access much of the Deep Web; you just have to know where to look.
Only a small fraction of the web is accessible via standard web browsers — commonly known as the plain web. The difference is that deep-web content is unaccessible just because it is hidden behind log-ins or paywalls, whereas dark-web content is intentionally hidden by its owners and requires specialized software — notably, a browser called Tor — to be accessed. Of course, although downloading dark web material may be as easy as clicking on a link and installing the software, for those trying to access Tor from a network or a country that blocks it, there are further complications.
That seems to be the only reason you would need a VPN to access the dark web is that your chosen dark web browser is blocked, whether it is from your own country or from your own local network. Because a VPN allows you to access the web through another IP address, your browsing activity cannot be tied back to you. However, if you are using the regular Internet in a country that blocks the Tor network, download the HMA VPN today and enjoy fully-autonomous browsing, whether you are using the Darknet or just checking email.
If you are going to be using the Tor network to access the deep web – or, for that matter, the surface web – then be sure to install one of the best VPNs out there in order to guard yourself from bad nodes leaving and entering. People living in countries where freedom on the whole internet is restricted, like China, could really benefit from using Tor. Your ISP cannot see what websites you are visiting on the Darknet while using Tor, but it may be able to predict or assume that you are using Tor if it analyses your monitored Internet traffic.