Transport Layer Security (TLS) is the successor to the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol. TLS ensures privacy and security between communicating applications and users on the internet by preventing eavesdropping, tampering, and message forgery. It works by having the client and server negotiate a cipher suite and protocol version to use to securely transmit encrypted messages. This establishes a secure channel over an unsecured network like the internet to provide confidentiality, integrity, and authentication of communications.