Benefits of BCC

Benefits of BCC
 Although in many situations it may be appropriate to list email
 recipients in the To: or CC: fields, sometimes using the BCC: field
 may be the most desirable option.
What is BCC?
 BCC, which stands for blind carbon copy, allows you to hide recipients
 in  email  messages.  Unlike  addresses  in  the  To: field or the CC:
 (carbon  copy)  field,  addresses  in the BCC: field cannot be seen by
 other users.
Why would you want to use BCC?
 There are a few main reasons for using BCC:
 * Privacy  -  Sometimes  it's beneficial, even necessary, for you to
 let  recipients  know  who  else  is receiving your email message.
 However,  there  may  be  instances when you want to send the same
 message  to multiple recipients without letting them know who else
 is  receiving the message. If you are sending email on behalf of a
 business  or  organization, it may be especially important to keep
 lists  of  clients,  members,  or associates confidential. You may
 also  want to avoid listing an internal email address on a message
 being sent to external recipients.
 Another point to remember is that if you use the To: or CC: fields
 to  list  all  of your recipients, these same recipients will also
 receive  any  replies  to  your  message unless the sender removes
 them. If there is potential for a response that is not appropriate
 for all recipients, consider using BCC.
 * Tracking  -  Maybe you want to access or archive the email message
 you  are  sending  at  another email account. Or maybe you want to
 make  someone,  such  as a supervisor or team member, aware of the
 email  without actually involving them in the exchange. BCC allows
 you  to  accomplish  these  goals without advertising that you are
 doing it.
 * Respect  for your recipients - Forwarded email messages frequently
 contain  long  lists of email addresses that were CC'd by previous
 senders. These addresses are highly likely to be active and valid,
 so  they  are  highly  valuable  to  spammers.  Furthermore,  many
 email-borne  viruses harvest email addresses contained in messages
 you've  already  received  (not just the To: and From: fields, but
 from  the  body,  too),  so those long lists in forwarded messages
 pose a risk to all the accounts they point to if you get infected.
 Many  people  frequently  forward messages to their entire address
 books  using  CC.  Encourage people who forward messages to you to
 use  BCC  so  that  your email address is less likely to appear in
 other  people's  inboxes and be susceptible to being harvested. To
 avoid  becoming  part  of the problem, in addition to using BCC if
 you  forward  messages,  take  time  to  remove all existing email
 addresses  within  the message. The additional benefit is that the
 people you're sending the message to will appreciate not having to
 scroll  through large sections of irrelevant information to get to
 the actual message.
How do you BCC an email message?
 Most  email clients have the option to BCC listed a few lines below to
 To:  field.  However,  sometimes  it  is a separate option that is not
 listed by default. If you cannot locate it, check the help menu or the
 software's documentation.
 If  you want to BCC all recipients and your email client will not send
 a  message without something in the To: field, consider using your own
 email  address  in  that  field. In addition to hiding the identity of
 other  recipients,  this  option  will  enable you to confirm that the
 message was sent successfully.
 _________________________________________________________________
 Authors: Mindi McDowell, Allen Householder
 _________________________________________________________________

Copyright 2004 Carnegie Mellon University. 
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