The internet remains, in everyone’s eyes, an infinite virtual space in perpetual construction, recently expanded by cloud computing and made more complex by the interactions of connected objects and autonomous robots. For several years now, however, a divide has emerged between, on the one hand, the known internet, easily accessible via search engines and relatively secure, and on the other, the dark and unknown digital Wild West: the “Deep Web” and the “Dark Web.”
Referring to specific uses of the internet, these English terms have been officially translated by the French Language Enrichment Commission, which published a glossary of computer science and internet terms on September 26th. In this glossary, the “Deep Web” becomes “la toile profonde” (the deep web) or “l’abysse” (the abyss), while the “Dark Web” becomes “l’internet clandestin” (the clandestine internet).
Deep Web, Dark Web and Darknet
The deep web, or “deep web,” is described as “the part of the web that is not accessible to internet users through standard search engines,” and it is specified that it includes, in particular, the content of certain databases or restricted-access websites. The concept of “deep web” is undoubtedly broader and more precise. In reality, it refers to all internet pages not found on search engines.
This includes traditional websites that refuse to appear on conventional search engines, private data servers not intended for public access, and web pages containing technical errors that prevent indexing by search engine crawlers. Thus, only 3 to 10% of web pages are indexed – known as the “Clear Web” or “Web surfacing” – while the rest belongs to the “Deep Web”: government resources, judicial, medical, scientific, and academic reports and documents, bank account data, user-only areas accessible with personal login credentials, and so on.
A distinction within the “deep web,” the clandestine internet or “Dark Web” is officially defined as “the set of networks designed to ensure user anonymity through the implementation of a decentralized architecture as well as specific software and access permissions; by extension, all the activities, often illicit, that are carried out there, which essentially use virtual private or peer-to-peer networks, as well as encryption methods and co-optation processes.
Here again, the concept of the “Dark Web” refers more specifically to computer networks built in parallel with the traditional internet, requiring specific tools to connect to them. “Tor,” “Freenet,” and “I2P” are all specialized software programs that allow access to these alternative networks, favoring indirect and random, encrypted connections, and whose anonymity is protected by technology. The distinctive feature of the “Dark Web” lies particularly in how its browsing works: anonymized connections, concealment of the geographical location of servers, and the use of a protected cryptocurrency.
Darknet: a legally regulated digital space
The use of the “Dark Web,” facilitated by the user-friendliness of the tools available to novice users, raises the question of the legal rules applicable to this new use of the internet. The absence of a barrier between the visible and hidden internet makes the “Dark Web” an extension of the already legally recognized internet, which, however, due to its specific characteristics, requires tailored regulation. Upon analysis, the “Dark Web” is in reality an online communication tool whose democratization has led to a diversification of its activities and uses, sometimes beneficial, sometimes criminal, for which a broad legal framework already exists. The specific characteristics of the Deep and Dark Web have encouraged France to adopt specific regulations, while also promoting all extra-legal means of regulating this dark part of the internet.
Dark Web & Dark Net – PCS Lawyer – Legal Framework for the Clandestine Internet
Find the full article in the Lamy Intellectual Property Law Review (RLDI), June 2018, No. 149
