Tech Corner – To CC or to BCC, that is the question

Many people do not understand the power, importance, or security obtained through the use of BCC when sending emails to groups of people.

Pretty much all of us know and have experienced the thrill of carbon paper – OK slight exaggeration. Carbon paper or carbon backed paper has been around for 100s of years. It was an easy way to automatically duplicate what was written on the first page onto one or more successive pages. In Mexico, many businesses and government offices still use dot matrix printers with carbon backed paper to create two or three copies with only one print.

So how does this relate to modern technology?

The tech term “CC” means carbon copy and has its roots in the use of this carbon paper. Its cousin is blind carbon copy, or “BCC.” Some people may also call CC courtesy copy, but that is not correct.

“CC” and “BCC” are two very different options; failing to use “BCC” in certain scenarios places you and your recipients at great risk.

When writing an email, you can place a recipients email into the TO:, CC:, or BCC: field.

If you want someone to know an email is specifically for them, you can put their name in the TO: field.

If you want to make others aware of this email being sent, you can utilize the CC: field. This can be used for accountability to make sure everyone is aware who has a copy of the message.

But, if you are sending to more than a few people, you should consider using the BCC. A Blind Carbon Copy means that everyone on the list gets a copy of the email, but they are blind to the names of the other recipients. If you are sending a party invite, information about a fundraiser, or email to all of your clients about a new change, you should seriously consider using BCC.

What are the Risks of not using BCC?

• Hacking – If one of your recipients has their email account hacked, the hacker now has every single email address of all people you sent the email to. By using TO or CC instead of BCC you just increased the amount of SPAM for every recipient on the email you sent.
• Privacy is lost if you dont use BCC. Just this last week I received two emails using CC instead of BCC.

1) The first was an attorney telling his clients that he was moving offices. As a recipient, I now have the email address for every single one of his clients. As you might know, attorneys should keep their client’s identities private.

2) The second was an invitation to an event. I got to see the email addresses of many wealthy and influential people who probably did not want to share their personal contact details.

• Ooops reply to all – A recipient might accidentally use reply to all when trying to send you their response. This means their reply goes to EVERYONE on your list. If you had used BCC, they could only reply to you, because your email is the only one they see. This reply-to-all accident actually happened on the attorney email I mentioned above. One of his clients emailed him back about a personal matter and the client did not realize she was emailing every single one of his clients. Ooops, now her dirty laundry has been aired semi-publicly.

So please, if you are sending to more than a few people, take a moment and consider if you should use BCC.

One extra note: Some mail programs force you to put at least one person in the TO field, in this case you can use your own email and all others in the BCC.

Where do I find this mythical BCC option?

Great question. Every email program is different, but usually it only takes a few seconds to find it the first time. Here are some pointers for the most popular programs.

• Microsoft Outlook<–(click for article)
• Mac Mail<–(click for article)
• Android – There is usually a little down arrow next to the “TO” field that reveals the CC and BCC fields
• iOS Devices – There is a CC/BCC icon you can click to reveal the fields.
• Gmail – There is a link to BCC to the right of the From field when composing a new message.
• Yahoo (aka insecure) Mail<–(click for article)