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
ELI5 –
It’s confusing because we say “key”, but when you get a public key from someone, you’re really receiving their “padlock”
You write your message then lock the padlock around it.
Now only the person you sent the message to can open it.
You can make tons of copies of this padlock and give them to anyone who wants to write a message only you can read, and you can get a copy of the padlock for anyone you want to write a message to.
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