34 Chapter 2
Name, Email, and Comment
Your name, your email address, and an optional comment field
combine to create your OpenPGP user ID, or UID. You must
be very careful to enter these in the most correct manner to
get the greatest possible use out of OpenPGP.
Your Name
Use your real name. Remember, one important part of using
GnuPG is getting people to sign your public key. Although it’s
easy to get your friends and family to sign your keys, proving
your identity to strangers so that they will sign your keys is a
little more difficult.
The best way to get your key signed is to provide some
sort of government-issued ID with your name on it. My pass-
port says “Michael Warren Lucas Jr.,” my books are authored
by “Michael W. Lucas,” my company email ...