The TRACE method of the HTTP protocol is used for diagnostic purposes. It allows the client to see how a request is processed by the server and which changes are made to the initial request by intermediate servers. When a TRACE request is sent to a server, it responds with a message containing the entire request headers and the entity body. The main purpose of the TRACE method is to help with troubleshooting and debugging issues related to requests and responses. However, due to security concerns, many servers disable this method by default.