(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 haven'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.  READ MORE