How to Set up PGP Encryption in ProtonMail

Pretty Superior Privacy, or PGP for shorter, lets you lock your e-mail messages so that only the meant receiver with the critical can perspective them. ProtonMail is just one of the few e-mail expert services that supports this element without any more software program.

How Does PGP Work?

PGP works using public and personal keys. To send an encrypted concept to somebody, you’ll want to know their general public crucial. Signing your outgoing information with their community essential lets them to then decrypt it with their personal important. Finish-to-close encryption can make it almost impossible for anybody to intercept your concept. As the title indicates, you should really hardly ever expose your private essential to any one.

Making use of PGP in most e mail purchasers demands the use of extra program (like FlowCrypt or Mailvelope) to handle the decryption and encryption system. But ProtonMail by now supports OpenPGP natively, which usually means that you can established it up for use with precise e-mail addresses and then ignore about it.

You can use PGP with a cost-free ProtonMail account or a compensated one—either way.

Suggestion: If you’re now sending an e-mail to another ProtonMail user, then you never require to worry about this, because messages sent involving ProtonMail addresses are by now end-to-close encrypted in any case. This is only important if you want to exchange encrypted messages with people today who are not using ProtonMail.

Connected: What Is ProtonMail, and Why Is It A lot more Private Than Gmail?

Stage 1: Share Your Community Essential

To set up secure email interaction by way of PGP, you are going to require to trade keys with whoever you’re speaking with initially.

If you have not already done so, indicator up for a ProtonMail account and indicator in. Simply click on the “Compose” button in the leading-left corner of the display screen to start crafting a new e mail. Enter the tackle of the recipient for whom you want to set up encrypted conversation.

Upcoming, simply click on the “More” fall-down icon and make confident that “Attach Public Key” is checked. You can now incorporate a message to your email physique, notifying the recipient that your general public essential is hooked up. You can instantly attach your community essential to all outgoing mail less than Settings > Safety by enabling “Automatically attach general public key” under PGP Options.

Phase 2: Believe in Your Contact’s Public Critical

Future, you want the individual you’re communicating with to share their general public critical. How they do this in the long run depends on how they are making use of PGP, but it will just take the form of a little file attachment. When you get this electronic mail, ProtonMail will notify you that a community essential is hooked up and inquire you to believe in it.

Click “Trust Key,” and make confident that “Use for Encryption” is checked in the pop-up that seems. This will register the general public critical along with the e mail deal with that despatched it.

If the receiver sends you the general public critical by means of one more usually means, you can click on “Contacts” at the best of the site and create a new contact. Use the exact same e mail from which the vital was received, and add the file you have gained. Yet again, make guaranteed that you decide on “Use for Encryption” so that you can indication outgoing mail.

Suggestion: You can also manually upload a recipient’s community essential using ProtonMail’s Contacts. See ProtonMail’s documentation for more data.

Now Converse Securely!

With keys exchanged and your deal with book current with the right keys, you should now be equipped to talk securely with your contact. You will need to have to repeat this course of action for any other contacts you desire to use PGP with. This approach is possible why PGP continues to be a fairly obscure (but successful) encryption device.

ProtonMail will immediately encrypt and decrypt messages if you have established up PGP appropriately. You can notify that a concept has been encrypted via PGP if you see the eco-friendly padlock icon in the “From” area (Mail from other ProtonMail end users is signified by a purple padlock.).