Netiquette: Use BCC

When sending email to more than a few people or to people that don't necessarily know one another use BCC.

Using BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) hides the addresses of the people to whom you send email.  Doing so is a courteous practice for a few reasons.

• BCC eliminates the risk that viruses will access recipients' email addresses from email messages stored on others' computers.
• BCC prevents you from publicizing email addresses that people may want to keep private.
• BCC prevents your recipients from receiving Reply All messages that they may not wish to receive.

A disadvantage to using BCC is that individuals on your list may forward the message to others to whom you have already sent the message.  The flip side of that is also a disadvantage.  If you forget to add a recipient to your list, others will not have the opportunity to correct your error and forward the message.  However, the drawbacks to using BCC are insufficient to preclude utilizing this feature.