Why would you use something like PGP if you have to send your encryption key unencrypted to the party you are sending to? And if you leave this key out on something like Twitter for example, couldn’t law enforcement or a third party if they gained access to the other persons email still read the contents of the encrypted email by using this key? Doesn’t this defeate the purpose of using encryption?
In: Technology
Giving your public key to everybody is like sending people a padlock (public key) only you have the key of, and you keep the key (your private key). Everybody can lock (encrypt) a box (message), but once they’ve done, you’re the only one who can open (decrypt) it. Whenever you think about public key/private key, think of padlock/opening key, rather than two distinct keys.
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