( CNN ) -- Bad news : Your Facebook page is likely about to slow down . Good news : The change will help keep online thieves away . According to a recent blog post , Facebook is in the process of moving all of its users in North America -- and soon the rest of the world -- to a type of Internet connection that is more secure but also tends to slow down Web browsing a bit . Called HTTPS , as opposed to less-secure HTTP , it 's the connection you see on online retail sites when you 're about to enter credit card information or a password . Sometimes a little lock icon appears in the browser window when you 're connected to a site with HTTPS . ( The `` s , '' by the way , stands for `` secure . '' ) `` As the Web evolves , expectations around security change , '' Facebook 's Alex Rice wrote last year when he announced that HTTPS would become an option on Facebook . `` For example , HTTPS -- once a technology used primarily on banking and e-commerce sites -- is now becoming the norm for any Web app that stores user information . '' The new change is that Facebook is starting make HTTPS the default setting for all its 1 billion-plus users , so people who have n't selected that option soon will get added security -- and , potentially , slower browsing . `` People will be able to opt-out of HTTPS for maximum speed if that 's how they roll , '' according to the blog TechCrunch . `` It is far from a simple task to build out this capability for the more than a billion people that use the site and retain the stability and speed we expect , '' Facebook 's Frederic Wolens told that tech news site , `` but we are making progress daily towards this end . `` This may slow down connections only slightly , but we have deployed significant performance enhancements to our load balancing infrastructure to mitigate most of the impact of moving to HTTPS , and will be continuing this work as we deploy this feature . '' How will you know whether you 're using HTTPS or HTTP ? Look at the top of your browser window , where you enter Internet addresses . If you go to Facebook and see https : //facebook.com in that box , then you 're browsing on the more-secure connection , which scrambles data as it sends it back and forth to Facebook 's servers , making it more difficult for someone in the middle to nab your passwords or other sensitive data . `` Think of it like this : you 're having a private conversation with your new boyfriend or girlfriend , and your ex -- unbeknownst to you -- is a few tables over listening to every word , '' the blog Lifehacker writes in a post titled `` WTF is HTTPS . '' `` That 's the sort of risk HTTP poses , whereas HTTPS would be more like if you and your new romantic interest were speaking a new language that only the two of you understood . To your stalker of an ex , this information would sound like gibberish and s/he would n't get any value from listening if s/he tried . `` HTTPS is a way for you to exchange information with a web site securely so you do n't have to worry about anyone trying to listen in . '' Other online services , including Gmail , already use HTTPS by default .
Facebook is moving to HTTPS connections by default . That may result in slowed speeds for some users . The switch is designed to offer additional security . People who are unhappy with the change can opt out .