What are the potential benefits and drawbacks of passing parameters through URLs in PHP?

Passing parameters through URLs in PHP can be beneficial because it allows for easy data transfer between different pages or components of a website. However, it can also pose security risks if sensitive information is included in the URL, as it can be easily seen and manipulated by users. To mitigate this risk, sensitive data should be encrypted before being passed through URLs.

// Encrypting sensitive data before passing it through a URL
$sensitiveData = "password123";
$encryptedData = base64_encode($sensitiveData);
$url = "https://example.com/page.php?data=" . $encryptedData;

// Decrypting the data on the receiving page
$receivedData = base64_decode($_GET['data']);
$decryptedData = $receivedData;