What is BCC in Outlook Express?

Emails sent to a group of people should use the BCC field.

BCC stands for Blind Carbon Copy in Outlook Express and all other email applications. It is used to protect the privacy and security of a group of recipients of email messages.

Privacy

BCC protects the email addresses of individuals that make up your list of recipients. Businesses with confidentiality policies in place must send mass emails using BCC to remain in compliance.

Etiquette

Email etiquette dictates the need to use the BCC field when sending mass emails out, whether it is to a list consisting of friends or business contacts. Others may forward emails, and using BCC keeps the email clean with only the necessary information present.

Security

Emails sent out without using the BCC field may risk those email addresses being harvested by spammers and virus-infected computers. Also, if one recipient decides to reply to all with a personal communication to the sender only, then everyone on the list will also receive that personal reply, which can contain personally identifiable information such as account numbers.

References

• Rutgers: BCC for Privacy!
• United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team: Benefits of BCC

Resources

• Microsoft: Outlook Express