This period witnessed a sharp increase in Tor downloads, with net users becoming more concerned about their privacy, as all sites on the deep web use untraceable. In fact, a lot of Internet users switched over to these anonymous browsers following Edward Snowden’s revelations about the NSA mass eavesdropping programmes. Using browsers like Tor and I2P is not technically illegal. Unlike the surface web, which we access through browsers such as Chrome and Firefox, the deep web can only be accessed through deep-web browsers like Tor and I2P, which provide anonymity to the user. The deep web is an ocean of untapped information that cannot be accessed through standard search engines. Just like the unconscious mind/iceberg beneath the water, we cannot even begin to fathom the endless, dangerous possibilities that exist in the Internet’s underbelly, in what is known as the deep web. As users whose lives are Internet-centric and Internet-dependent to a fault, we have barely scratched the surface of the Internet, which spans far beyond what meets the eye. The metaphor exceeds beyond mere size when it is applied to what is known as the deep web. When Freud segregated the areas of the mind into the conscious, unconscious and subconscious, he compared the unconscious mind to the bulk of the iceberg, submerged beneath the water. The deep web's lack of censorship and accountability makes it a double-edged weapon, says Stuti Pachisia.

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