Shall I skip the passphrase?

During signing up at Private.Ki, you might wonder whether to create a separate passphrase or just rely on your normal login password. Skipping the passphrase means you won’t have that extra password/passphrase to unlock your encrypted mailbox each time.

You can choose at this screen during sign-up:

The upside of skipping is convenience – one fewer step when logging in. The potential downside is that your encryption keys are then protected by an alternate mechanism: If you skip the passphrase, we set up an "internal passphrase" for you, derived from your login password.

While this is still secure, it might not be as robust as having a completely separate passphrase known only to you.

Think of it like this: not using a passphrase is like having a single lock on your door (your account password), whereas using a passphrase is like having two locks (account password and mailbox passphrase) – two locks are generally safer than one.