You’ve all seen it. It’s right under the to: field when you compose an email. No, not CC, but BCC. That stands for “Blind Carbon Copy”. The purpose of this little feature isn’t just to send copies of important emails to yourself for archival purposes. Let’s have an example…
Let’s say you have a really enthusiastic bud-die that’s always sending links to music that he’s uploaded to all his friends. You hugely appreciate the thought every time you get one of his treats. But then it happens. Someone accidentally hits “reply all” on the email. Pretty soon one person’s personalized shout out is sent to the entire list, even though the intended recipient is only one person. How best to avoid this faux pas petit? Blind Carbon Copy.
Ideally, you’d put yourself in the to: field and everyone else in the BCC field. This way, not only are you not exposing the email addresses of all of your friends to the whole world, when someone inevitably hits the “reply all” button, it’s cool. They don’t have any names on the list except the original sender, and the world is just that much happier.
Thus concludes today’s lesson in etiquette and irony from yours truly.