Http & Https

The 23 Things Oxford programme prompted me to find out the difference between Http and Https, so I did a bit of research. According to www.wisegeek.com, http stands for Hypertext Transfer Protocol and is a system for transmitting and receiving information across the Internet. Hypertext Transfer Protocol Secure (Https), is described on Wikipedia as 'a combination of the Hypertext Transfer Protocol with the SSL/TLS protocol to provide encryption and secure identification of the server'. In short, it seems Https is used when there is an exchange of confidential information with a server, which needs to be secured in order to prevent unauthorized access. I checked Facebook and found the website address was preceded by Http, until I logged in and it changed to Https as I hoped it would!