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Help with Encrypted Email.

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  • Last reply by Matt

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I am running Mozilla Firefox 91.3.0 64 bit on top of Windows 10 64 bit. I have been trying to get email encryption and decryption going. I am not sure about what is all meant to happen.

Is it the case that an email sent to you, via a known public key that sits in the OpenPGP key manager, is (seamlessly) decrypted automatically, for you, or not? Doesn't that contradict e2ee encryption? I was under the impression that decryption was a specific step that had to be chosen, but was not imposed in incoming, public key known, encrypted emails by default.

-I have been able to get to a point, by juggling between two email accounts, where an incoming email with an attached public key now has the OpenPGP icon come up. Can someone reply to me here with an online graphical example, of what an incoming encrypted email, into Thunderbird, shows and looks like, and what the decryption step(s) are to manage to read the plain text?

I am running Mozilla Firefox 91.3.0 64 bit on top of Windows 10 64 bit. I have been trying to get email encryption and decryption going. I am not sure about what is all meant to happen. Is it the case that an email sent to you, via a known public key that sits in the OpenPGP key manager, is (seamlessly) decrypted automatically, for you, or not? Doesn't that contradict e2ee encryption? ''I was under the impression that decryption was a specific step that had to be chosen, but was not imposed in incoming, public key known, encrypted emails by default.'' -I have been able to get to a point, by juggling between two email accounts, where an incoming email with an attached public key now has the OpenPGP icon come up. '''Can someone reply to me here with an online graphical example, of what an incoming encrypted email, into Thunderbird, shows and looks like, and what the decryption step(s) are to manage to read the plain text?'''
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I thought that automatic decryption of the message violated the definition of e2ee email encryption.

I would have wanted the contents of the email to remain non-decrypted, even in the right inbox with the right public key. Inbox account could in some theory be broken into.

Is this going to be changed, so that email decrypters have to take the specific, particular, step, of clicking a button to apply a private key, and only then, being able to see, in any way, the plain text of the email?

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I suggest you take your discussion to the e2ee mailing list where folk interested in that stuff hang out. There is also a huge archive of past discussions covering just about everything you have mentioned here. https://thunderbird.topicbox.com/groups/e2ee

I use s/mime and expect without exception that my mail will be ready to read when I click on in. What is the point of having a computer to do tasks if it will not do them for you when you are accessing your data.