This icon will reveal the email settings menu. Select the contact you want to configure PGP for.If your contact does not send you their public key via email, there is an alternate way to import keys through the Contacts menu.
If your contact is digitally signing their messages, a check mark should now appear on the lock next to their email address in messages you receive from them, indicating the signature is correctly verified. Now PGP encryption is set up between ProtonMail and the external email address and you can start sending end-to-end encrypted emails.
In the popup, confirm that you wish to trust this key by selecting Trust key again (or Cancel, to go back). To enable sending PGP email to this contact, click on Trust key. If you get a message that is properly cryptographically signed from your contact with their public key attached, you will see something similar to this:
How does gpg mail work how to#
The contact on the other side needs to know how to use PGP and have a PGP plugin installed in their mail client already. Sharing your public keyįirst, you need to share your public key with the non-ProtonMail recipient that you want to exchange encrypted emails with. However, if the recipient is not using ProtonMail, but does use PGP, it is possible to manually set up PGP by following the instructions below. ProtonMail does all of this automatically if both parties are using ProtonMail. Using your public keys, other users can verify these signatures. Signatures, created with your private key, are proof that you have written the message you have signed. In addition to encryption, PGP can also create digital signatures. The private key is kept secret and is used for decryption. The public key can be distributed to anyone who wants to send you a message and is used to encrypt a message that can only be decrypted by you. PGP works by generating a key pair: a public key and a private key. If the people you are communicating with are unable to create a ProtonMail account, you can use our Encrypt for Outside feature or, for more technically proficient contacts, ProtonMail’s external PGP encryption. Using PGP with ProtonMailīy far the easiest way to use PGP with someone else is for both you and your contact to create a ProtonMail email address. To provide end-to-end encryption between ProtonMail and external email providers, ProtonMail provides two options: Encrypt for Outside and PGP encryption. While we store your emails in an encrypted format on our servers, the external email provider of the person you are emailing might have access to the emails you send. ProtonMail can also be used to communicate with external email accounts without end-to-end encryption. Additionally, all messages in ProtonMail inboxes are protected with PGP encryption to prevent us (or anyone else) from reading or sharing your emails, a concept known as zero-access encryption. With ProtonMail, anyone can use PGP regardless of their technical knowledge.Īll messages between ProtonMail users are automatically end-to-end encrypted. We have built ProtonMail with PGP fully integrated, so you don’t need to take any additional steps to use PGP encryption. Historically, PGP was difficult to use, and impossible for most users to set up and regularly use for their own email communications. PGP is a proven method of protecting email communication with end-to-end encryption (which prevents emails from being read by any third parties, including your email provider).