0:02 [Music]
0:04 dark web. For some people, that phrase
0:07 brings up images of hackers in hoodies
0:09 or illegal marketplaces. But that's just
0:12 one small corner of it. Dark web is
0:14 simply a hidden part of the internet. It
0:16 doesn't show up in Google results and
0:18 you cannot access it with regular
0:21 browsers. But most people don't really
0:23 know how to access it safely. So, in
0:25 this video, I'm going to show you how
0:27 you can get to the dark web safely and
0:29 what are some things you can do to
0:31 protect your privacy while you're there.
0:33 Let's quickly break down what it
0:35 actually is and how it's different from
0:37 the rest of the internet. So, the
0:40 internet as we know it actually has
0:42 layers, three layers to be specific.
0:45 Surface web, deep web, and the dark web.
0:47 The surface web is the regular stuff
0:49 like Instagram, YouTube, and Reddit.
0:51 These are all indexed and searchable
0:54 with Google or any other traditional
0:56 search engine. The deep web is anything
0:58 behind a login screen. You can think of
1:01 your Gmail inbox, your cloud storage,
1:04 academic databases, private records,
1:06 stuff that you can't just stumble onto.
1:08 And then we have the dark web, which is
1:10 a hidden section of the internet that
1:12 doesn't use typical domain names
1:16 like.com. Instead, it uses domains and
1:18 you can only access them using special
1:21 tools. mainly the tour browser, which we
1:23 will get into in a bit. Contrary to
1:26 popular opinion, the dark web isn't all
1:28 about illegal stuff. Just like the
1:30 surface web, it's a mix. It depends
1:32 where you go and what you do. All right.
1:34 Now that you understand what the dark
1:37 web actually is and that it runs onion
1:39 addresses, we can talk about how to
1:41 actually get there. To do that, you need
1:43 access to the tour network. You can
1:45 think of the tour network as a giant
1:47 privacy tunnel system across the
1:49 internet. And to access this privacy
1:51 tunnel system, we will need a tool
1:54 called tour browser. The easiest and the
1:56 simplest way to use tour browser is to
1:58 install it on your main system. Simply
2:01 open your regular browser like Chrome,
2:04 Firefox, Edge, whatever you're using and
2:05 head over to to
2:08 tourpro.org/d download. Once you're on
2:10 the site, you'll see a list of supported
2:12 systems. For this video, I'm going to
2:14 pick Windows, but if you're on Mac or
2:16 Linux, just choose your operating
2:18 system. Just click the download button
2:20 that matches your system and let it run.
2:23 Once the file finishes downloading, open
2:25 it up. If you're on Windows like me,
2:27 you'll get the standard installation
2:29 wizard and you just need to choose your
2:30 language, choose where you want to
2:33 install it, and finally click install
2:35 and let it do its thing. Once that's
2:37 done, you can go ahead and launch the
2:39 tour browser. The very first time you
2:42 open it, tour will ask you how you want
2:44 to connect. You will see a screen that
2:46 says something like this. In most
2:48 situations, you can just click connect
2:50 and it will start building a circuit to
2:52 the tour network. Keep in mind that if
2:54 you live in a country where tour is
2:56 blocked, like China or Iran, you might
2:58 need to click configure and set up a
3:00 bridge. Once tour connects, it will open
3:03 up like a regular browser. But we want
3:04 to verify that the connection is
3:06 actually going through the tour network.
3:09 So, in the address bar, type
3:12 check.pro.org and then hit enter. You'll
3:14 see a message that says something like
3:16 this along with an IP address that is
3:18 part of the tour network. This means
3:20 you're good to go and all your browsing
3:22 is now routed through tour. So now
3:24 you've got tour browser installed.
3:26 You're connected to the tour network and
3:28 your traffic is being routed through a
3:30 secure anonymized circuit. If you're
3:32 just looking around, checking out onion
3:35 links, reading forums, or doing basic
3:37 research, using tour browser on your
3:40 regular system is totally fine. It still
3:42 gives you a solid layer of privacy as
3:44 long as you're careful. But here's the
3:46 thing, and this is really important.
3:48 Even though tour hides your internet
3:51 traffic, your operating system can still
3:53 leak identifying information like
3:55 metadata, cacheed files, browser
3:58 history, or background services that can
4:00 log activity. All that stuff can leave a
4:02 footprint on your machine without you
4:05 even realizing it. And that footprint
4:07 can eventually be tied back to you. So,
4:08 if you're curious about staying
4:11 anonymous, then using something like
4:13 Tails OS is going to be the next step.
4:16 Now, Tails is a live operating system
4:18 you boot from a USB stick. It routes
4:20 everything to Route by default. It
4:22 leaves no trace on the machine you're
4:25 using and it's read only. So, even if
4:27 you plug it into a malware infected
4:29 computer, you can still safely run
4:31 Tails. To install Tails, you need to
4:34 open up a browser and go to tails.net.
4:36 Once you're there, click the install
4:38 Tails button. This will take you to a
4:41 step-by-step guide. Before you start, it
4:43 will tell you what you need, and if you
4:45 match these requirements, simply click
4:47 download Tails. This will start
4:49 downloading the Tails image file, and it
4:51 might take a few minutes depending on
4:52 your connection. Once you install the
4:54 image file, you will have to burn it
4:57 into your USB stick. Here, I'm going to
4:59 use Bellina Etcher to do that, but you
5:01 can use any other tool of your choice to
5:03 burn the image. If you don't have
5:05 Bellina etcher tool, you can download it
5:07 by visiting
5:09 bolina.io/cher and download the right
5:11 version for your operating system. Once
5:14 you install this tool, simply run it and
5:15 then you will see a window that looks
5:18 like this. So here, simply click flash
5:20 from file and select the Tails image
5:23 file you just downloaded earlier. Next,
5:25 plug in your USB stick. Then click
5:27 select target and choose it from the
5:30 list. And finally, click flash to burn
5:32 the image into the USB stick. Keep in
5:34 mind that anything on the USB stick will
5:36 be wiped. So, if you have anything
5:38 important on it, make sure to save it
5:40 somewhere safe. This process usually
5:42 takes about 5 to 10 minutes, but once
5:45 it's done, you can safely remove the USB
5:47 stick. All right, now everything is
5:49 ready. We want to simply run Tails We
5:51 just burned on the USB stick. And to do
5:53 this, you need to shut down your
5:55 computer completely and make sure the
5:57 USB stick is plugged in and then turn
6:00 your computer back on and enter the boot
6:02 menu. And to get on the boot menu on
6:04 most computers, you will press a key
6:08 like F12, F9, escape or delete during
6:10 startup. You might see a prompt like
6:13 press for boot options or BIOS. So try
6:15 to hit that key fast. Depending on your
6:17 system, it will look different, but the
6:20 general idea is to change the boot order
6:22 and make sure the USB with the Tails is
6:24 the first one to boot into instead of
6:27 your main hard drive. If everything goes
6:29 right, you'll see the Tails boot screen
6:30 pop up. You can simply choose the
6:33 default options and then hit start
6:35 tails. Give it some time to load and
6:37 then choose your connection type to tour
6:39 network. After all this, you will now
6:41 have a fully anonymous privacy focused
6:44 environment. Everything you do here is
6:46 going to be routed through tour leaves
6:48 no trace on your computer and resets
6:51 after every shutdown. You can now browse
6:53 onion sites with real operational
6:55 security without your main operating
6:57 system tracking anything in the
6:59 background. All right, we're almost
7:01 there. We've set up everything. Tails OS
7:03 is running. We know that all traffic is
7:05 going through the tour network. And most
7:07 importantly, we know that everything
7:09 will be wiped clean the moment we shut
7:12 down the system. But we still want to
7:14 increase our protection a little bit
7:16 more. And the reason is that the dark
7:18 web is a place where privacy and
7:20 protection matter. Not just from the
7:22 sites you visit, but from any possible
7:25 fingerprinting, leaks, or malware that
7:27 you come across. So even though Tails
7:29 gives us a solid foundation, we still
7:31 want to harden the browser a little bit
7:34 more. By default, Tor browser is set to
7:36 a balanced level of security, which
7:38 tries to give you full functionality
7:40 without sacrificing too much. But you
7:43 can safely push this higher. And to do
7:45 this, you can simply click the shield
7:47 icon and then click settings. And then
7:49 here you will see three options:
7:52 standard, safer, and safest. For most
7:54 users, I recommend going with safer,
7:57 which gives you extra protection without
7:59 completely breaking every website. But
8:01 if you're going deep into more sensitive
8:03 or dangerous pages, then you probably
8:05 need to switch it to the safest. This
8:08 will make sites look a bit broken, but
8:10 the trade-off is going to be worth it.
8:12 All right, now we're actually ready to
8:14 start browsing the dark web safely. But
8:16 here comes the obvious question. Where
8:18 do you even find these onion sites? The
8:21 thing is, onion sites are not indexed
8:23 like regular websites. You won't find
8:25 them by just googling around, which is
8:27 kind of the whole point. They're
8:29 intentionally hidden from the surface
8:32 web. Most users rely on a few common and
8:34 relatively safe methods. Some of these
8:37 methods include AMIA, which is a search
8:40 engine for onion sites. It filters out
8:42 illegal content and is often used by
8:44 researchers and journalists. And
8:47 finally, r/onion subreddit, which can be
8:50 a gold mine for lesserk known but
8:52 trusted services. Just make sure you're
8:54 not blindly visiting links from random
8:57 users. Always verify onion addresses
8:59 because they're long and random for a
9:00 reason, and it's super easy to get
9:03 tricked by lookalike or fishing clones
9:05 while visiting links on dark web. Do not
9:08 give out real names, real emails, or any
9:10 identifying information. Do not download
9:13 files unless you trust the source. and
9:15 do not use tour to log into your
9:18 personal accounts. So that's it and you
9:20 now have the tools to browse the dark
9:22 web safely and privately. The dark web
9:24 itself is not illegal just like the
9:27 surface web. It all depends on what you
9:29 do while you're there. So be smart, be
9:32 cautious, and don't get reckless just
9:34 because you're behind tour or inside
9:36 tales. Use this knowledge responsibly.
9:38 And if you found this video useful, let
9:40 me know in the comments. And as always,
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