Sharing data over the internet is very easy, whether we send a general data or we send a confidential data, such as credit card details for payment. Both the transfer of data follows slightly different protocols, these are HTTP and HTTPS. When we browse a normal data, we can observe 'http' prepended to URL and when we visit a payment site we can see https prepended to the URL. Let's see the difference between them:
HTTP: To communicate data and exchange information over the internet, a procedure was developed called as HTTP - HyperText Transfer Protocol. The data over HHTP can be seen by anyone over the internet but when it was necessary to transfer confidential data over the internet, a modification was needed. This introduced to HTTPS - HyperText Transfer Protocol Secure.
HTTPS: HTTPS relies on SSL certificate to securely transfer the online data. SSL certificate is a document which enables the sender to encrypt the data so that only intended receiver can decrypt it. This procedure of encryption is called as HTTPS.
SSL: Every user has a public key and a private key. A Public key is shared with everyone with whom the user wants to communicate, but the private key is never shared. If user A wants to send some data to user B, the B sends A its own SSL certificate which contains B's public key. Now, user A encrypts the data with user B's private key, which can only be decrypted with B's private key. This way no other can decrypt the data along the way. This encryption is called SSL encryption.
So, when you browse a site which should be encrypted check for https in the URL. If you don't find https, then that website in not encrypting your data.
