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CC and the arcane BCC

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Intro

Email’s been around a while. Users should know that addressing large groups of people in the To: or CC: fields of an email is inappropriate and disrespectful to all the email’s recipients. Many emailers either don’t understand how to use the BCC: field of their email clients or simply have no regard for it. This post explains how the BCC field works and why it is of such importance when emailing large groups.

Background

CC and BCC are abbreviations for two obsolete devices known as “carbon copy” and “blind carbon copy”. In the days before email and photocopying, typists or letter writers used what was called “carbon paper” to duplicate their letters. As a letter was created, the pressure from the pen or typeface deposited ink from an inky “carbon paper” onto a blank sheet behind it, thus creating a “carbon copy” of the original document. Blind carbon copies were used to ensure that multiple recipients of a document didn’t see the names of other recipients. CC and BCC would follow the writer’s salutation and signature at the bottom of the document, as illustrated on the right.

Why the BCC is important

If I send you a must-read joke about the leprechaun, genie, and nun in Burger King, and I leave 100 other undisclosed email addresses either in the To: field or the Cc: field, those email addresses will be visible if those 100 recipients forward the email. If each of those people forward my hilarious joke in the same wreckeless way as I did, your email address is already in the inboxes of 10,000 people you probably don’t know. If they do the same (entirely unlikely and I don’t doubt your understanding of exponential growth, but humor me), your email is in one million inboxes. To have your email address in the hands of so many strangers — or any strangers at all — is less than ideal, and the easiest invitation there is for more spam.

In some cases, such as event planning and local activism, it makes sense to create a dialog between a group of people by using the CC. What’s dangerous is that if someone is peripherally involved in the conversation, they will still be receiving every email that’s sent with the inconsiderate “Reply All”. For instance, an old acquaintance I met at a wedding two years ago (haven’t spoke since) recently sent an email with 200 of his closest friends in the CC (four of whom I knew). What I was afraid would happen happened. For the next hours and days, I was inundated with back and forth “reply all” emails regarding where we should all do New Years. “How about Madagascar!” “I think we should stay right here in Philly!”, etc… Then, inevitably, there was the backlash of emails from strangers that said things like “TAKE ME OFF THIS DAMN THREAD” and “Unsubscribe”. All this can be avoided with the BCC.

Belaboring the Point

I’ve had the same personal email address for ten years. It’s a cool address at a cool domain and I actually pay $30/year to own it. I’m very protective of my email address and would hate for it to suffer the fate of so many other people’s email accounts that get bombed out to the point of uselessness with spam about penis pills, watches, hot stock picks, Russian mail order brides, Nigerian princes that want to share their wealth with me, etc… I take every measure to maintain the privacy of my email address because it is as valuable to me as the privacy of my phone number. This is why I get upset — and I am not alone — when my address is among a slew of other addresses in an email I know is bound to be forwarded on by other people ignorant of the basic rules of netiquette. Don’t send forwards. It’s lame. If you do, strip them of the email addresses that precede the content and use the BCC!

How to Use the BCC

In all desktop email clients (like Outlook, Outlook Express, Entourage, Mac Mail, or Thunderbird) as well as all web-based email services (like Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, or AOL), you should have the following fields available when you create an email: To, Cc:, Bcc:, and Subject. If you don’t see the BCC: field in your Compose view, click on the name of your client above to find out how to access it.

By addressing the email to yourself and inserting your recipient’s email addresses or your mailing list name into the BCC: field, your email will be sent to each of your recipients without them being able to see the other recipients. In some cases, they may see that the email was sent to a list of “undisclosed recipients”, but most of the time, it appears that the email has been sent from you — to you.

Minimizing unwanted email

Please do your part to protect the privacy of the email addresses of your friends, family, and co-workers. Understand that many chain letters, warnings about computer viruses, threats about the do-not-call list and other popular forwards are the mythical work of spammers trying to snowball email addresses. You can debunk many of the questionable email forwards you get by a simple Google search of the email’s subject line, and sites like Snopes are at your disposal to dispel what smells too fishy to be true.

If your friend, family member or co-worker continually sends you email where your address is disclosed and you’re uncomfortable with it, link them here by using the ShareThis button below. Alternatively, figure out a polite way of telling them to either use the BCC or to remove you from their address book. If handled respectfully, the offending sender will be appreciative that you’ve taught them something new. For your convenience, a few different sample emails are available here for you to copy and paste into your email.

Thanks for reading this post about email etiquette. Keep this reference guide handy by bookmarking the page so that you can refer others here when necessary. If you think this post can be improved, feel free to leave your comments below.

More resources:
Break the Chain
13 Things Every Net User Should Know
Snopes, the Urban Myth Buster

Thanks to the following resources, which were useful in the creation of the above:
Wikipedia
University of Idaho Information Technology Services
Writing for Design Professionals by Stephen A. Kliment

8 Responses to “CC and the arcane BCC”

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   Anita April 1st, 2010, 12:00 pm

   How do I shut down BCC and CC when I don't need them and how do I stop them from popping up each time I send an e-mail to one person?
6. 

   Anita April 1st, 2010, 12:02 pm

   How do I remove BCC and CC from my send mail when I am only sending to one person?
7. 

   Anita April 1st, 2010, 6:00 pm

   How do I shut down BCC and CC when I don't need them and how do I stop them from popping up each time I send an e-mail to one person?
8. 

   Anita April 1st, 2010, 6:02 pm

   How do I remove BCC and CC from my send mail when I am only sending to one person?

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