Last updated: 01-July-2026
Please read these terms before using darkwebdecoded.com. They set out the rules for using the site and they limit what we are responsible for. By visiting the site, reading an article, or sending us a message, you agree to them. If you do not agree, please stop using the site.
1. Who we are
Dark Web Decoded (“we”, “us”, “our”) publishes darkwebdecoded.com, an independent educational website and news resource about the dark web, anonymity networks, and online privacy.
You can reach us at [email protected].
2. What this site is, and what it is not
This site exists to explain and report. Nothing more.
Everything we publish is for general information and education. It is not advice, and it is not an instruction to do anything. We write about how technologies work, what has happened, and what researchers and courts have found. Reading about something here is not permission to go and do it, and it is not a suggestion that you should.
We want to be blunt about a few things in particular:
We do not publish links to dark web sites. No onion addresses, no mirrors, no directories, no “working links”, not for any site, ever. If you find something claiming to be from us that does, it is not from us.
We are not affiliated with anyone operating on the dark web. No marketplaces, vendors, forums, services, or individuals. Nobody sponsors us, nobody pays for coverage, and we run no affiliate or referral arrangements with anyone in this space.
We do not sell anything, broker anything, or introduce anyone to anyone. We are not a marketplace, an escrow service, a middleman, or a guide service.
We do not provide operational help for illegal activity. We will not tell you how to buy contraband, commit fraud, launder money, or avoid law enforcement, no matter how the request is framed.
If your reason for being here is any of the above, the site is not for you and these terms are your notice to leave.
3. Not professional advice
Content on this site is not legal advice, security advice for your specific situation, financial advice, or any other kind of professional advice. We are writers and researchers, not your lawyer and not your security consultant.
Laws about anonymity tools, encryption, and online conduct vary enormously between countries, and in some places they change quickly. Something lawful where we are may be a criminal offence where you are. Before you act on anything you read here, speak to a qualified professional in your own jurisdiction. If you choose not to, that is your decision and your risk.
4. Accuracy, and the limits of it
We try hard to get things right. We read the court filings, the indictments, the academic papers, and the security research, and we say when something is unconfirmed rather than dressing up a rumour as a fact. When we get something wrong and find out, we correct it and note what changed.
Even so, we cannot promise that everything on the site is accurate, complete, or current. This subject moves fast, sources conflict, and reporting is often contested. Articles reflect what we knew when we published them. We are under no obligation to update older pieces, and an old article staying online is not a claim that it is still true today.
The site is provided “as is” and “as available”. To the fullest extent the law allows, we make no warranties of any kind, express or implied, about the site or its content, including any implied warranties of accuracy, fitness for a particular purpose, or uninterrupted availability.
5. How you may use the site
You may read the site, share it, quote it fairly with attribution, and cite it in your own work.
You agree that you will not:
- use the site for any unlawful purpose, or to plan, support, or carry out any unlawful act
- ask us for links, market access, vendor contacts, or help with anything illegal
- attempt to gain unauthorised access to the site, its servers, or any connected system
- scrape, crawl, or harvest the site by automated means beyond ordinary search engine indexing
- attempt to disrupt the site, including by denial of service or malware
- republish substantial parts of our content as your own, or feed it into a commercial product without permission (see section 7)
- impersonate us, or set up a site, account, or service that suggests you are connected to us
- harass, threaten, or abuse us or anyone else through our contact channels
We may block access, without notice and without explanation, to anyone we believe is breaking these rules.
6. Your age
The site is intended for adults. If you are under 16, please do not use it. If you are between 16 and 18, please read it with a parent, guardian, or teacher.
7. Our content and your use of it
Unless we say otherwise, everything on this site (articles, explainers, graphics, diagrams, and the design of the site itself) belongs to us or is used with permission, and is protected by copyright.
You may quote short passages for review, comment, teaching, research, or news reporting, provided you credit Dark Web Decoded and link to the original article. That is the normal courtesy and in most places it is also what the law allows.
You may not republish whole articles, sell our content, present it as your own, or use it to train or fine-tune a commercial machine learning model without our written permission. If you want to do something beyond a short quote, ask us. The answer is often yes, and it costs you nothing to check.
Our name and logo are ours. Please do not use them in a way that suggests we endorse you, or that you speak for us.
8. Links to other sites
We link to ordinary websites: news outlets, court records, academic papers, security research, and documentation. Those sites are not ours. We do not control them, we are not responsible for what they contain, and a link is not an endorsement of everything on the other end of it.
To repeat what section 2 says, because it matters more than anything else here: we do not link to dark web sites.
9. Anything you send us
If you send us a message, a tip, a correction, or a comment, you keep ownership of it. You give us permission to read it, act on it, and quote or publish it (including anonymously) unless you clearly ask us not to.
Do not send us anything confidential that you are not allowed to share, and do not send us anything illegal. We are not set up to receive high risk material and we are not a secure drop. If you have something sensitive, use PGP, think carefully about what you are doing, and consider whether an organisation with proper source protection is a better home for it.
We may delete messages without replying, particularly the ones described in section 2.
10. Availability
We run this site because we want to. We may change it, restructure it, take articles down, or stop publishing altogether, at any time and without notice. We do not promise the site will always be online or that any particular page will stay where it is.
11. What we are liable for
To the fullest extent permitted by law, we are not liable for any loss or damage arising from your use of this site or from anything you read on it. That includes direct, indirect, incidental, consequential, and special damages, loss of data, loss of profit, loss of reputation, and any legal trouble you get into.
If you read something here and then do something with it, that is on you.
Nothing in these terms limits or excludes our liability for death or personal injury caused by our negligence, for fraud or fraudulent misrepresentation, or for anything else that cannot lawfully be limited or excluded. If your country gives you consumer rights that these terms cannot take away, those rights still apply and nothing here affects them.
12. Indemnity
If your use of the site breaks these terms or the law, and that leads to a claim against us, you agree to cover our reasonable costs and losses in dealing with it.
13. Privacy
How we handle personal data is set out in our Privacy Policy, which forms part of these terms.
14. Changes to these terms
We may update these terms. When we do, we will change the date at the top. Significant changes will be flagged on the site. Carrying on using the site after a change means you accept the new version. It is worth checking back now and then.
15. The rest
If any part of these terms turns out to be unenforceable, the rest still stands, and the unenforceable part is treated as removed rather than dragging everything else down with it.
If we do not enforce a term straight away, that does not mean we have given it up. We can still enforce it later.
These terms, together with the Privacy Policy, are the whole agreement between you and us about your use of this site.
These terms are between you and us. Nobody else can enforce them.
16. Contact
Questions about these terms: [email protected]
Dark Web Decoded is an educational publication. We do not link to, promote, endorse, or work with anyone operating on the dark web.