title: GET vs POST in REST Web Service
body: <p>I'm in the process of developing a REST service that allows a user to claim their listing based on a couple of pieces of information that appear on their invoice (invoice number and billing zip). </p>
  
  <p>I've read countless articles and Stack Overflow questions about when to use GET and when to use POST. Overall, the common consensus is that GET should be used for idempotent operations and POST should be used for operations that create something on the server side. However, this article:</p>
  
  <p><a href="http://blog.teamtreehouse.com/the-definitive-guide-to-get-vs-post" rel="nofollow">http://blog.teamtreehouse.com/the-definitive-guide-to-get-vs-post</a></p>
  
  <p>has caused me to question using GET for this particular scenario, simply because of the fact that I'm using these 2 pieces of information as a mechanism to validate the identity of the user. I'm not updating anything on the server using this particular method call, but I also don't necessarily want to expose the information in the URL.</p>
  
  <p>This is an internal web service and only the front-end that calls the service is publicly exposed, so I don't have to worry about the URL showing up in a user's browser history. My only concern would be the unlikely event that someone gain server log access, in which case, I'd have bigger problems.</p>
  
  <p>I'm leaning toward POST for security reasons; however, GET feels like the correct method due to the fact that the request is idempotent. What is the recommended method in this case?</p>