Installing GPG Suite

First you will need to download GPG Suite (https://gpgtools.org/) and run the installer.

The installation should only take a minute or so, once completed you will notice an app called GPG Keychain has been started. This is the GUI in which you will handle all of your PGP tasks. You may notice an icon in your dock, it is a key chain.

Creating your own PGP Public Key

Now we need to learn how to create your own PGP public key so back on GPG Keychain, you have a window asking you to enter some info;



Enter a fake name or an anonymous online alias. In our example we will use anon. You can optionally enter an email (do not ever enter your personal email). You can use a fake email, or an anonymous email, or simply no email. Just ensure you use a relatable name, this is important as when a vendor imports your key into their ring they will need to be able to find you within their growing list of contacts. Set your password but do not click Generate Key just yet, click on "Advanced options" and set the key to 4096 bits and then uncheck the "Key will expire on" box as we do not want our key to expire;



Click Generate Key. When asked if you want to upload your public key, click "No, Thanks!". You are pretty much done, after a few minutes you will have your own PGP public key ready for use, it will be bold and contained within your list of keys;



If you want to export your PGP public key then simply select it, press export and save the file. If you open the file in TextEdit you will see a long string of random charecters. As long as you see "PGP PUBLIC KEY" at the top in between "-----" you can share this publicy, with anybody.

Sending a PGP encrypted message

Let's send our first encrypted message, first we are going to need somebody to talk to. I guess for this example we can assume you're about to send your address to a vendor. On the order page, click the PGP tab, and copy the vendors entire Public PGP key to your clipboard.



Once their key is contained within your clipboard, open TextEdit, paste the key and save the file as a plain text file with .asc extension. Then back on the GPG Keychain click on the "Import" button and then select the file you just saved;



If everything worked out you will see a window stating the certificate was imported successfully.



Now we need to prepare the message, so in this case it will be your address. Open up a fresh plain TextEdit document and type in your correctly formatted address and any additional information. Once done, select the entire message and go to Services > OpenPGP: Encrypt Selection.



Back on GPG Services window, select the recipient that you intend to send the message to, as we imported their public key they will be somewhere in your list. Once your recipient has been selected, click Encrypt.



If all is well, you will see that the text in TextEdit was replaced with a PGP message. Great, your encrypted message is ready to be sent to the vendor!

Decrypting a PGP encrypted message

In TextEdit, select the text you want to decrypt, right click on the selection and then under Services click on OpenPGP: Decrypt Selection.