Most people when sending email send using the
to line,
some even venture to the
cc line (carbon copy) but very
few venture into the realms of the
Bcc line (blind carbon
copy).
The answer is usually because they are blissfully unaware of the
existence of the
Bcc line. Most email clients including
Outlook Express and IncrediMail do not show the
Bcc line
on the default new email form when composing an email.
To Use the
Bcc line you must normally first enable it.
These screen shots show
how to enable Bcc in Outlook Express . The process for
Incredimail is similar.
What is the Bcc Line and why Use
it? The
Bcc line (blind copy)is used to send email to someone
without other recipients of the email being aware that it was
sent to those recipients. It is effectively a way of hiding
email recipients from each other. Its main use is when sending
email to mailing lists ( email groups).
If you send an email to recipients using the
to and or
the
cc line the recipients of the email can clearly see
who the email was sent to. If one of the recipients was a
mailing list then all recipients can clearly see the recipients
on the mailing list.
Consequences of not using the Bcc field 1) If the
mailing list is confidential (list of clients) then it isn't
anymore.
2) If anyone does a "reply to all," the reply is sent to
everyone on both the original "to and cc" line.
Putting the mailing list on the
Bcc line solves both of
these problems.
I would urge anyone who sends email to mailing lists or mailing
groups to consider using the Bcc line in future. However, it is
especially important for very large mailing lists and
confidential lists. Also depending on the law in your
country/state you may be in breach of the data protection act by
divulging someone's email address to a third party.
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