While you must keep your private key confidential, you may publicize your certificate. Because your certificate contains your identity information and the associated public key, it does not need to be kept private. Your private key is separate from your certificate. It is not displayed in your certificate and cannot be determined from the information displayed in your certificate. You must protect your private key and keep it a secret.
Most people store their private keys using the password protection of their Web browser.
Back to Questions 7. Your private key is literally the key that opens up your digital certificate. The private key is used to digitally sign documents which others can verify using your public key that is part of your certificate. If someone else obtained your private key, that person could masquerade as you and digitally sign as you. Back to Questions 8.