Traditional email was never designed with privacy in mind. When an email is forwarded from your aliases to your destination inbox, it travels across multiple intermediate networks and mail relays in cleartext. Any server along that path can potentially read, log, or scan your message.
For users on our Pro or Business plans, AliasFleet solves this by supporting Pretty Good Privacy (PGP). By encrypting forwarded emails at the gateway with your public key, we ensure your messages remain fully confidential from the moment they leave our system until they arrive safely in your hands.
The Zero-Knowledge Security Model
We believe privacy isn't privacy unless it's absolute. That's why AliasFleet uses a strict zero-knowledge model:
- You generate a PGP key pair locally on your own device.
- You upload only your PGP Public Key to your AliasFleet dashboard.
- Our mail engine encrypts forwarded emails with your public key as they pass through.
- You decrypt them on your own computer or phone using your PGP Private Key.
We don't want, and can't use, your private key. Because your private key never leaves your local device, nobody except you—not even AliasFleet—can read your encrypted emails.
How to Set Up PGP Encryption
Step 1: Get Your PGP Public Key
If you don't have a key pair yet, you can generate one using standard open-source tools:
- GnuPG (GPG): The standard command-line utility for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
- GPG Suite (macOS) / Kleopatra (Windows): User-friendly desktop apps for managing PGP keys.
- Mail Client Tools: Modern email clients like Mozilla Thunderbird have PGP generators built right in.
Once generated, export your key as an Armored Public Key (this is a text block beginning with -----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----).
Step 2: Upload Your Key
- Open your dashboard and head to Settings > Destinations.
- Find the verified destination address you want to encrypt and click PGP Settings.
- Paste your armored PGP public key into the field.
- We'll instantly validate the key, check its expiration date, and show you its fingerprint.
- Click Save PGP Settings. Your emails are now secured.
Tailoring Your Encryption Settings
You can customize how AliasFleet handles your encrypted emails:
1. Choose Your Encryption Mode
- PGP/MIME (Recommended): This encrypts the entire email structure (RFC 3156). Rich HTML styling, layout, embedded images, and attachments remain completely secure. Most modern clients like Thunderbird and Canary Mail handle this seamlessly.
- Inline PGP: Only encrypts the plain text body. If an inbound email contains HTML, we automatically convert it to plain text before encrypting. Use this option only if your email client doesn't support PGP/MIME.
2. Encrypt Your Subject Lines
By default, email subject lines stay unencrypted so mail servers can route them. If you want to hide your subjects from snooping eyes:
- Toggle Encrypt Subject on.
- Enter a Subject Replacement (e.g.,
[Secure Email]or...). - We'll swap out the subject in transit and tuck the original subject safely inside the encrypted envelope.
Decrypting and Reading Your Mail
To read your forwarded emails, you'll need an email client that handles PGP decryption. Here are some popular, reliable options:
- Mozilla Thunderbird: Built-in native PGP support. Just import your private key into the End-to-End Encryption settings.
- Apple Mail (macOS): Best paired with the GPG Suite extension.
- Outlook (Windows): Fully supported when configured with Gpg4win.
- Mobile Clients: Apps like Canary Mail, FairEmail, or K-9 Mail (integrated with OpenKeychain on Android) provide excellent mobile PGP support.
Want to learn how to automatically encrypt outbound replies and new emails too? Check out our guide on WKD Auto-Encryption.