CHAPTER 4: TECHNOLOGY
enforcement and security and intelligence agencies via warrant or court order is
reduced. In addition, there are an increasing number of anonymity tools which offer to
hide communications data. Furthermore, there are some OTT providers which do not
store communications data at all (e.g. riseup.net, dukgo.com). The diagrams in Annex
5 to this Report set out the impact of these trends on lawful access to content and
communications data.
The dark net
4.62.
Three commonly used categories of websites are as follows:
(a)
The open web describes those web pages that are found using standard
search engines such as Google.
(b)
The deep web makes up the vast majority (c. 90%) of web pages and describes
those sites which cannot be found using standard search engines: intranet
pages, administrative databases and personal photo collections.
(c)
The dark net (or dark web) is a tiny part of the deep web, consisting of tens of
thousands of websites: the operators of these websites use sophisticated
anonymity systems such as The Onion Router [Tor] or the Invisible Internet
Project to conceal their identities. The dark net has been described as “a world
of complete freedom and anonymity...where users say and do what they like,
uncensored, unregulated, and outside of society’s norms.”89 This enables it to
be used by whistleblowers and political activists who rely on anonymity, but
also for black market sales and (in common with many non-dark net sites) child
pornography.
4.63.
Perhaps the best-known dark net site is Silk Road, which used anonymity software to
provide a marketplace for illegal goods, such as weapons and drugs. Payment for the
goods took place using a digital currency called Bitcoin, which operates outside the
banking system and relies on encryption to ensure its integrity. Illegal drugs and other
goods to a value of more than $1.2 billion were sold to some 150,000 customers
between February 2011 and July 2013, using an eBay-style format in which buyers
could grade sellers for their reliability and the quality of their goods.
4.64.
Policing the dark net is extremely challenging but not necessarily impossible, as
demonstrated by the fact that the first version of Silk Road was taken down by
authorities in 2013 and by the success of Operation Onymous in November 2014, an
international operation which resulted in the shut-down of dozens of dark net sites
including Silk Road 2.0.90
89
90
J. Bartlett, The Dark Net, 2014, p.3. For Tor, see 4.67-4.69 below.
“Silk Road 2.0 targeted in ‘Operation Onymous’ dark-web takedown”, The Guardian website, 7
November 2014.
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