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You should use Django along with Django Rest Framework[1], which is absolutely amazing at building REST APIs. It lets you use all the goodies that come with Django and provides a very Django-ish way to build APIs.

[1] http://www.django-rest-framework.org/

Honestly, both can work. That said, python has a few well-known open-source rest api libraries/frameworks that have strong community support like Django Rest Framework or flask.

In terms of security, best practices would be to use https, api keys for each application. I'd also suggest setting up oath2

> ...which would you use and why?

Python. I prefer it as a language over PHP and I'm more comfortable developing and deploying Python projects.

> Additionally, how should the user data be protected in transmission?

HTTPS?

Ask HN: Developing a REST User API – Python or PHP?