Ok, so you’ve got PGP authentication on your mail, and you’ve uploaded your key to the keyserver. Now you want to communicate with someone, and you need their key to do so securely. How do I find someone’s key? “How do they send it to me?” I hear you ask.

The answer is simple. If they’ve uploaded their key to the keyserver, you just search the server:

GPG Keychain Access > Key (menu) > Search for key…

Enter the person’s email address (any one, if s/he’s got multiple). Terminal opens with all of that person’s keys, with a number next to them. Enter the number of the key you wish to import (eg. 1, 2, 3…) and that key will be imported and managed by your GPG Keychain app.

Next time that person mails you, Mail.app will authenticate the message. Next time you want to send them a message, you will be able to send it with 4096-bit encryption.

Power to the people.