what is the “Online Certificate Status Protocol”

[erikmccaskey64 <erikmccaskey64@zoho.com>]

I use privoxy. In the user.action file i have a redirect rule and a few websites: 

{ +redirect{s@http://@https://@} }

.twitter.com

.facebook.com

Ok! it's working great, e.g.: if i visit any "*twitter.com" URL it gets redirected to HTTPS!

But: with wireshark i can see some "OCSP" packets [ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Online_Certificate_Status_Protocol ]

Question: What are these packets? Why aren't there in HTTPS?

Is my redirection method with privoxy is secure?

Thank you for any tips/opinions!