Can you explain the differences between HTTP and HTTPS protocols and their main advantages?

HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol) is a data transfer protocol on the internet that operates without encryption. HTTPS (HTTP Secure) is an extension of HTTP that uses SSL/TLS for data encryption.

Main differences:

• Security: HTTPS protects data from interception and tampering, HTTP does not.
• Default port: HTTP uses port 80, HTTPS uses 443.
• Performance: HTTPS may have slight overhead due to encryption, but modern optimizations minimize this.

Advantages of HTTPS:

• Protects data confidentiality and integrity.
• Increases user trust.
• Improves SEO rankings in search engines.

Example of using HTTPS in Python with requests:

import requests
response = requests.get('https://example.com')
print(response.status_code)