To BCC or Not BCC: Email Etiquette
I have been surprised the number of people and contacts who are completely unaware of the differences between the To: CC: and BCC: fields when addressing emails. Understandably, it’s not really common knowledge.
There is a little bit of documentation around regarding these fields, but none are all that clear, in my view.
To:
Add contacts who you are directly communicating with. There is nothing wrong with a list of emails, as long as there is no problem with each recipient being able to see the other contacts.
If multiple recipients are entered in this field, it should be appropriate for each contact to email each other.
CC:
Known as Carbon Copy or Courtesy Copy. This field is exactly like the To: field, except it isn’t required to be filled.
CC: acts more like a differentiator for contacts who may want a copy of the email but are not required to participate in the conversation, i.e. management. It basically says, ‘this email is directed to you but these people are reading it too‘.
Those who would appear in the CC: field should have filters applied.
BCC:
Blind Carbon Copy is where you put contacts who shouldn’t see the should not be seen by other contacts. Commonly used for mailing lists [and spam], this field can also be useful to exclude emails from appearing for courtesy’s sake.
No matter the scenario, I think it is rude to assume someone is comfortable with their email being displayed to other people. For instance, an invitation to a party – not everybody knows everyone else and so, it may be inappropriate for each contact to be displayed.
When using BCC, add your own email in the To: field to ensure yours is the only address shown.
Also check our Effective Email Tips post.
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Comments
Brian says on April 25th, 2007 at 1:14 pm
I would suggest not using BCC outside of mailing list type things. I have always felt like it was sneaky.
I would also suggest that when you add a CC: you add something in the mail to indicate why. Maybe its really obvious, but I’ve gotten a ton of email CC’d to me where my first response was “what in the world am I supposed to do with this”.
Jeff says on April 25th, 2007 at 2:18 pm
Although BCC: seems sneaky, it is a godsend when sending out mass emails or company wide emails especially when the general user population doesn’t understand the difference between “Reply” and “Reply to all”.
At a previous employer, any of our company wide emails or emails to large groups of individuals would go out as BCC: emails with all the recipients listed in the email sig. It cut down on the accidental “reply to all” spamming that usually ensued after the email was sent.
carl says on April 25th, 2007 at 3:00 pm
Blind Carbon Copy is where you put contacts who shouldn’t see the other contacts.
This statement is precisely backwards. If you’re trying to clear up confusion, don’t encourage it with mis-statements. BCC is where you put recipients who should not be seen by other recipients. BCC recipients will see To and CC recipients’ addresses, but no recipient will see BCC recipients’ addresses.
Karolina says on April 25th, 2007 at 3:03 pm
I personally hate party invites with the invitees bcc’d. If I don’t know who else is coming to a party, I’m probably not going to go either.
Craig Childs says on April 25th, 2007 at 6:48 pm
Carl, that is correct.
Much appreciate the correction.
peter roosen says on April 27th, 2007 at 12:08 am
I object to receiving bcc emails unless it is a public document that would be okay to pin up on a luchroom notice board.
For incoming email, I want to see all the other recipients listed for the following reasons:
1) I might pick one or more from among the recipients to respond to,
2) The context is more apparent when knowing who is in on it,
3) It makes it easier to keep the address book updated.
For outgoing mail, I treat people the way that I would want to be treated.I never send bcc emails.
Tetsou says on April 27th, 2007 at 3:37 am
The bcc field can be very contentious, especially in a business context – and people often feel that it’s sneaky; but it can be very useful as explained above to keep lists private – which is something you often want to do in a business context, but not necessarily so when dealing with friends.
I explain this in one of my articles – 7 Deadly Sins of Email 7 Deadly Sins of Email which expands on the topic.
Tetsou
http://www.tetsou.co.uk
Richard says on April 27th, 2007 at 7:12 am
There are perfectly valid non-sneaky reasons to use bcc, for example I often use it when I draft a mail together with a few other people, and then when I send out the finished version to the final receiver I also bcc the other authors to make sure they know what was sent.
Bill Afthim says on September 27th, 2007 at 4:22 pm
Two other benefits of BCC :
Jokes, patriotic stories, stories of faith, prayer requests, etc. (including those stupid “Forward this and you will receive …”) emails get forwarded all over the place, and every future recipient sees every previous TO and CC addressee’s email (sometimes with full names as was in the sender’s address book) and can then use that information for other purposes. (If i find one of these valuable enough that i want to forward it, i often copy and paste what i want to forward rather than just adding more headings before my recipients get to the meat.)
Also, i have printed out an email i received from my church because it had directions on it, and the first page and a half that printed was email recipients! (To avoid wasting ink, i have to guesstimate when the info i want printed begins so i can start printing from that point.)
As kinda recommended here, putting only your address in the To field (and none in the CC) should alleviate the concern for people thinking they were the only recipients, except perhaps those who don’t yet know what BCC is – but the fact that you sent the email TO yourself should be a clue!
Mark says on May 27th, 2009 at 4:23 pm
There are many valid reasons for addressing recipients via blind carbon copy (bcc) which have nothing to do with being “sneaky”. I never feel it “sneaky” to bcc, rather I feel it is used for security and courtesy.
You may have included in your address list, recipients with business accounts. A business has the right to review any and all emails sent through their domain. Once you send any email including addresses listed as “to” or “cc”, those addresses become general public knowledge to all recipients and to all those any one recipient may choose to share them with. For example, an email is sent to a one or more business associates in addition to one or more personal acquaintances. The acquaintance then replies to all with offensive rhetoric, photos, or other graphic information. These are then passed throughout the business. Embarrassing? You be the judge. It may, and has, become grounds for dismissal.
The fact is, one cannot rely on the good sense of others to protect you or your best interests. One must protect oneself. In doing so, you will find yourself protecting others.
Want to know who is going to a party? Go to the party. Worried about who may be in attendance? Politely decline and stay home. If the party is not one you would be happy to attend just to enjoy the company of the host, you don’t deserve to be there anyway.
Just don’t go pasting names and email addresses out there for everyone to secure. There may be valid reasons why one may restrict one’s address from another. Perhaps they are careless, rude, offensive or otherwise dangerous to one’s well being. Just because one person cares to be included on a list does not mean everyone cares to be included.
Anyone who feels they are entitled to know all the recipients of any given email are selfish and self-serving.
Gopalani says on June 4th, 2009 at 8:28 am
I think BCC when used by someone, has good as well as evil intentions.
Good : For e.g If a manager gets an email and he forwards it to his subordinate to answer it as it is a tri
J Gopalani says on June 4th, 2009 at 8:39 am
I think BCC when used by someone, has good as well as evil intentions.
Good : For e.g If a manager gets an email and he forwards it to his subordinate to answer it as it is a trivial issue, the subordinate can answer the inquiry raised by BCCing the manager which actually indicates the manager that I have taken care of the issue and in case further response on this trivial issue, you wont be marked on the email.
Evil : When a subordinate is replying to his customers and does not want the customers to know his manager or customers to talk to his manager directly, he may use BCC.
What does it take to CC a person instead of BCCing him. Is he just suppose to receive 1 email on that subject? Is that the intention?
curly sue says on March 13th, 2010 at 10:25 am
sneaky sneaky!
a colleague sends emails to the boss with ‘in’ jokes in the message, that he doesn’t understad. It’s bcc’d to the rest of us so we can all have a laugh – this has spread to across the business and feels like bullying.
It’s also used when you think you’re talking to one person – but that person is bccing other people into what you think is private.
A friend was sending flirty emails back and forward but the guy was bccing his mates the replies.