What is the difference between HTTP and HTTPS?

HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) is a data transfer protocol over the internet that operates without encryption. All data is transmitted in plain text, making it vulnerable to interception and tampering.

HTTPS is an extension of HTTP that uses SSL/TLS to encrypt data between the client and server. This provides:

• Confidentiality of transmitted information.
• Protection against tampering and "man-in-the-middle" attacks.
• Server authentication.

Example in Go for running an HTTPS server:

http.ListenAndServeTLS(":443", "cert.pem", "key.pem", nil)

Thus, HTTPS is preferred for protecting data and user security.