How to Sign Up at Private.Ki

Creating a Private.Ki account is the first step to enjoying our secure email and messaging service. The sign-up process is quick and privacy-conscious:

Step 1: Create username and password

Navigate to the Private.Ki sign-up page.

Choose your desired username and enter it - your email address will be yourusername@private.ki.

Your username has to be 6 - 30 characters long and can contain letters and symbols. In case the username you choose is not available, just give it another try.

Also, you'll have to enter a password to secure your account. Remember this password or store it securely - you can only recover it in case you set up a recovery email address later. The password strength indicator helps you create a strong password: The stronger, the better.

Then, click on Create an account.

By the way, the password will never be sent to our servers. We don't know or store your password. That's a security feature called OPAQUE.

Step 2: Choose how to secure your emails

As all messages on Private.Ki are encrypted, there is one more additional step to secure your data so that only you can read it:

We need to set up a passphrase which will be used to secure your encryption keys, to encrypt your data on your device. Think of it like a second password: Your account password which you have set up in the previous step is for login, your passphrase is for 

There are 3 options to do this:

In any case, a secure PGP key pair is created on your device, consisting of a public key and a private key. The only difference is how your PGP secret key is secured:

Password only means that we will create a secure passphrase for you, derived from your password. This is secure, but anyone who knows your password can not only log in to your account, but also decrypt all your data. It's the most convenient option.

Password + device authentication is safer: This method uses your device's unlock method (for example fingerprint or face scan) to secure your passphrase. That's safer.

The safest option is a unique Passphrase: You will set up a unique passphrase (like a second password) which is used to secure your PGP private key. To decrypt your data, your passphrase is needed - there's no way around this. So if you choose a secure and long passphrase and don't tell it to anybody and don't save it anywhere, nobody can access your encrypted data. This is very safe, but may be inconvenient for most users.

Our recommendation: Use a secure and unique passphrase.

Don't worry, you can change your selection later.

Password only

If you choose Password only, your key pair will be automatically generated in the background. You don't need to do anything else.

You can login to your Private.Ki account with your password, and your data is automatically decrypted.

Passphrase (advanced)

In case you choose passphrase, you have to either enter your desired passphrase (like a password), or click on Generate Passphrase to get a suggestion.

You can easily copy the passphrase by clicking on the copy icon:

The passphrase is not saved anywhere and not sent to our servers. Its only purpose is to secure your secret PGP key pair, which is automatically generated on your device, as soon as you click Submit.

That means: There is no way to recover a lost passphrase. 

WARNING: If you don't remember your passphrase, you can't decrypt your data any more. (That's a feature, not a bug.)

Congratulatons: Welcome to Private.Ki

You made it: You have successfully created your Private.Ki account.

Now you can communicate securely with confidence!