They do not refer to precisely the same thing, although most of these terms are usually used interchangeably. A component of nuance is needed. So the ‘Deep Web’ contains the ‘Dark Web’, but also contains all user databases, webmail pages, registration-required internet newsgroups, and pages behind paywalls.
We’ve got a staging variation of our sites from being indexed by search engines that’s blocked, so narratives can be checked by us before we set them live. So for every page freely accessible on this particular site (and there are absolutely millions), there’s another on the Deep Web. So that’s just another page for each page that’s on the live website. Our work intranet is concealed from search engines, and needs a password. It’s been live for almost 20 years, so there are many pages there.
Use an internet bank account? When you consider exactly how many pages only one Gmail account will create, you comprehend the absolute size of the Deep Web.
This scale is why mainstream news outlets and papers often trott outside frighten stories about ’90 percent of the net’ consisting of the Dark Web. They’re mistaking the usually dodgy Dark Web with the usually benign and considerably larger Deep Web. Mixung up the action of concealing matters that are delibarately, with that of always keeping pages away from search engines for reasons of user experience or protection.