[switchblade0515]

VPN is a must, cover your webcam with tape.

[funkfella]

Idk man, I don't think vpn is necessary in the deep web tbh

[Kazaa]

DO NOT USE A VPN WITH TOR.

[Charonony]

DO NOT USE A VPN WITH TOR.

WHY

[bender]

Use VPN and don't download files music or video in deep web or dark web virus is all

[retroplayer]

DO NOT USE A VPN WITH TOR.

WHY

Tor is centered around constantly and randomly changing nodes. The first node would be the vpn you are using, which does not change randomly. And besides that, it makes Tor slower and doesn't actually add to your privacy. See, all the website you visit can see is the end node. All the end node can see is the node before that, and so on. None of the nodes, besides the exit node who does not know who requested the information, can see what sites you have asked for. A VPN does nothing to make you more anonymous, and if anything, hurts your privacy rather than help it.

Don't take my word for it. Here is an article from the official website: https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor...TorPlusVPN
That is not to say that using a VPN with Tor is useless. If you do something highly illegal, like send a bomb threat through Tor, the authorities can check your ISP's logs to see who was using Tor during that period of time. A VPN is only useful to hide the fact that you are using Tor at all, and that problem can also be solved by using your local Starbucks wifi with Tor as well. That being said, as long as you aren't a public threat, authorities can't see, or really don't care, what you are doing on the platform. A VPN most likely won't hurt you because your threat level is most likely low. But unless you REALLY want to use one, its going to make Tor super slow, and your entry/exit node will end up staying the same.

[retroplayer]

And nobody mentions:
1. Tor might still be backdoored by NSA/Darpa.
2. There is also i2p

This.

Like think about it.. how do they catch the biggest market owners so quick.. think about evo , alpha bay..

They were all high skilled, very well educated hackers.. they didn’t make a mistake over the years and yet they got caught so easily..

Its open source. If you want to look for backdoors yourself, go on ahead
As far as Alphabay goes, this podcast has some good information on how they got caught. It wasn't necessarily Tor that was the problem. See, when you signed up for Alphabay, you got a welcome email. In the header of this email was the address "pimp_alex_91@hotmail.com." That told the FBI that the person behind it was likely named Alex, and was also born in 91 since so many people put their birthdays at the end of their emails for some reason. They asked Microsoft for information about pimp_alex_91@hotmail.com, and found out that it was also linked to a LinkedIn account owned by Alexandre Cazès who was born in 1991.

There is a lot more to the story, so I recommend listening to it. I highly recommend this podcast because it shines a lot of light on various cybersecurity events with credible sources.

*edit* turns out I have already responded to that post a couple weeks ago. Oops. I will leave this comment up though because that is a lot of information I wanted to share, that no one has brought up yet. Fun rabbit holes to go down

[Charonony]

DO NOT USE A VPN WITH TOR.

WHY

Tor is centered around constantly and randomly changing nodes. The first node would be the vpn you are using, which does not change randomly. And besides that, it makes Tor slower and doesn't actually add to your privacy. See, all the website you visit can see is the end node. All the end node can see is the node before that, and so on. None of the nodes, besides the exit node who does not know who requested the information, can see what sites you have asked for. A VPN does nothing to make you more anonymous, and if anything, hurts your privacy rather than help it.

Don't take my word for it. Here is an article from the official website: https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor...TorPlusVPN
That is not to say that using a VPN with Tor is useless. If you do something highly illegal, like send a bomb threat through Tor, the authorities can check your ISP's logs to see who was using Tor during that period of time. A VPN is only useful to hide the fact that you are using Tor at all, and that problem can also be solved by using your local Starbucks wifi with Tor as well. That being said, as long as you aren't a public threat, authorities can't see, or really don't care, what you are doing on the platform. A VPN most likely won't hurt you because your threat level is most likely low. But unless you REALLY want to use one, its going to make Tor super slow, and your entry/exit node will end up staying the same.

thank you for the insight

[YolkiPalki]

I am always attracted to the dark side of the Internet!

[Nork0i]

Dark web is overhyped , i'd say there's more on the clear net now through closed groups/forums since most people use a VPN/VM etc

Safe travels!