Frequently Asked Question

You can read here first if you want more information about aliases (identities) and Public keys.

In order to be able to use OpenPGP encryption/decryption with your alias/identity you need to add your identity/alias to your Public Key.

1. Go to Settings / Public Keys (in the left list window)

2. In the middle window list, click on your own key (which is marked green) and usually its at the top.

3. Click on the button [Edit keyring] in the right window

4. Check/Uncheck the check boxes under the column "Enabled" for each alias you want to be public available in your public key. Click on OK under the alias list (if you don't see the OK button, scroll down the window a little bit)

5. You will then be asked to enter your password, so our system can change change your PGP-public keypair

The change is done locally, so no data is sent out unencrypted. When it's done it will upload the new encrypted and anonymized PGP-keypair-packet to our servers database.

If you want to keep a backup of your public key, go to Preferences / Security & Keys, and click on [Download Public key]. The public key is not so vulnerable/sensitive, so it can be kept on a normal unencrypted laptop. Public keys are always possible to download through our Tools-page: https://webmail.countermail.com/tools/tools.html
But if you sometimes want to share you public key offline, or when you don't have an internet connection then it could be good to have a copy of it on your own computer.

We have a rolling backup for the last 7 days, so you don't have to download anything if you don't want to, it's up to you.

If you have some encrypted (secure) device, for example a full disk encrypted laptop where you can store your private key safely, then you can also download the private key by clicking [Download private key], you will be asked about your password again, this time only for security reasons. But downloading the private is only recommended for advanced users since it must be kept safe, even if its still encrypted using OpenPGP:s internal private key protection.

Usually you only need to download your private key if you use some third party email client (not our webmail interface), so generally we do not recommend downloading the private key, since its sensitive information for your account.

Keywords: add alias, add aliases, alias public key, aliases public key, add alias to public key