Blind carbon copy

Blind Carbon Copy (BCC) is an option available in most
email clients that allows the sender to send the message to
a list of BCC addresses (in addition to primary recipients)
without other addressees knowing about that fact. BCC
addresses are concealed from recipients, including others
on the BCC list.
This concept originally applied to paper correspondence
(carbon copy) and now also applies to emails.[1]
In some circumstances, the typist creating a paper corre-
spondence must ensure that multiple recipients of such a
document do not see the names of other recipients. To
achieve this, the typist can:
• Add the names in a second step to each copy, with-
out carbon paper;
• Set the ribbon not to strike the paper, which leaves
names off the top copy (but may leave letter impres-
sions on the paper).
• To send a copy of one’s correspondence to a third
party (for example, a colleague) when one does not
want to let the recipient know that this is being done
(or when one does not want the recipient to know
the third party’s e-mail address, assuming the other
recipient is in the To or CC fields).
• To send a message to multiple parties with none of
them knowing the other recipients. This can be ac-
complished by addressing a message to oneself and
filling in the actual intended recipients in the BCC
field.
• To prevent the spread of computer viruses, spam,
and malware by avoiding the accumulation of block-
list e-mail addresses available to all BCC recipients,
which often occurs in the form of chain letters.
2 Disadvantages

With email, recipients of a message are specified using In some cases, use of blind carbon copy may be viewed as
addresses in any of these three fields: mildly unethical. The original addressee of the mail (To:
address) is left under the impression that communication
is proceeding between the known parties, and is know-
• To: primary recipients
ingly kept unaware of others participating in the primary
• CC: carbon copy to secondary recipients (other in- communication.
terested parties) A related risk is that by (unintentional) use of 'reply to all'
functionality by someone on BCC, the original addressee
• BCC: blind carbon copy to tertiary recipients who
is (inadvertently) made aware of this participation. For
receive the message. The primary and secondary re-
this reason, it is in some cases better to separately forward
cipients cannot see the tertiary recipients. Depend-
the original e-mail.
ing on email software, the tertiary recipients may
only see their own email address in BCC, or they Depending on the particular email software used, the re-
may see the email addresses of all primary and sec- cipient may or may not know that the message has been
ondary recipients. sent via BCC. In some cases, ‘undisclosed recipients’
placed in the To: line (by the software) shows that BCC
It is common practice to use the BCC field when address- has been used. In other cases, the message appears iden-
ing a very long list of recipients, or a list of recipients that tical to one sent to a single addressee. The recipient does
should not (necessarily) know each other, e.g. in mailing not necessarily see the email address (and real name, if
lists.[2] any) originally placed in the To: line.
When it is useful for the recipients to know who else has
received a BCC message,
1 Benefits
• their real names, but not their email addresses, can
There are a number of reasons for using this feature: be listed in the body of the message, or
• a meaningful substitute for the names can be placed
• BCC is often used to prevent an accidental “Reply in the body of the message, e.g. ‘[To General Man-
all” from sending a reply intended for only the orig- ager and members of Remunerations Committee]’,
inator of the message to the entire recipient list.[3] or ‘[To the whole Bloggs family]’.

1
2 5 EXTERNAL LINKS

3 Carbon vs. courtesy

The interpretation of “BCC” as “blind courtesy copy” is
a backronym and not the original meaning; the historic
RFC 733 has an explicit “blind carbon” annotation in
its definition of the BCC header field syntax. “CC” and
“BCC” mean “carbon copy” and “blind carbon copy” re-
spectively.
Sending courtesy copies of mailing list replies also directly
to the author(s) of answered message(s) is a common
practice on some lists, and matches a new interpretation
of “CC” as abbreviation for “courtesy copy”.

4 References
[1] Stout, Chris. “DEAR NERD: Blind carbons hide ad-
dresses.” Charleston Gazette (West Virgi nia, USA).
1998-01-18. page P5B. NewsBank record number
100F35638A890441.

[2] Husted, Bill. “Bad e-mail habits can be bothersome, em-

barrassing” Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The (Georgia,
USA). 2009-08-30. page E15. NewsBank record num-
ber 103419444.

[3] Boodhoo, Niala; Carey, Bridget (2009-08-25).

“Be careful when you 'reply all' to e-mail”. Mi-
ami Herald. pp. C8. NewsBank record number
200908250100KNRIDDERFLMIAMIH_poked-08-25-
09.

5 External links
• US-CERT Cyber Security Tip ST04-008, “Benefits
of BCC”
 3

6 Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

6.1 Text
• Blind carbon copy Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blind_carbon_copy?oldid=793270924 Contributors: PhilipMW, Menchi, Slark,
Furrykef, LMB, RedWolf, Jondel, HaeB, Tremolo, DocWatson42, Mstyne, Brockert, LucasVB, RayBirks, Darksun, Ukexpat, Mike Rosoft,
Discospinster, Buntz, Jamadagni, Stac~enwiki, Smalljim, Andre.blum~enwiki, RichardNeill, Wrs1864, Arthena, Wtmitchell, H2g2bob,
Markaci, Vanished user dfvkjmet9jweflkmdkcn234, Woohookitty, Graham87, Elvey, Sjö, Scmdn, Quiddity, NeonMerlin, Halloko, Acefitt,
Bgwhite, YurikBot, Phantomsteve, Barefootguru, Bovineone, Gcapp1959, Xyzyxx, Mad Max, Mugunth Kumar, Saric, Bayerischermann,
Pouchkidium, SmackBot, InverseHypercube, Teimu.tm, Yamaguchi , OrangeDog, NYKevin, Cybercobra, Clean Copy, NickdelaG,
Axem Titanium, BurnDownBabylon, Mgiganteus1, Cielomobile, BranStark, Richard75, Lenipedia~enwiki, Cydebot, Cwhii, Gogo Dodo,
ST47, Thijs!bot, Epbr123, Edupedro, Mojo Hand, Simeon H, Thomprod, Pebkac, Edward321, Electricat, Kiore, J.delanoy, Bdodo1992,
VolkovBot, EEye, Philip Trueman, TXiKiBoT, Sroc, Myles325a, Madhero88, Synthebot, Wavehunter, Rosalbissima, Bfpage, Yintan,
Spectre9, Flyer22 Reborn, Faradayplank, Diego Grez-Cañete, Denisarona, SLSB, Sfan00 IMG, ClueBot, Fox, Armando49, Thingg, Fe-
lixOskaloosa, Darkicebot, Expat222, Avoided, Dwilso, Addbot, Mortense, Napy1kenobi~enwiki, ChenzwBot, Yobot, MarkRae, Legobot
II, Skysinger23, AnomieBOT, Materialscientist, Neurolysis, Bear8, GrouchoBot, SassoBot, Doulos Christos, Trstephenson, Smartsimplic-
ity, A.amitkumar, Pinethicket, Wildcat2010, Hessamnia, TheMesquito, EmausBot, Xqsd, K6ka, Richard asr, Theofficeprankster, Axxon-
nfire, SBaker43, Petrb, ClueBot NG, Pokemonblackds, Calabe1992, BG19bot, Hallows AG, IraChesterfield, Mediran, SKennethb, Lets go
to sleep now, Ocranom, EvergreenFir, Ykvm, Hisashiyarouin, Shadowshack1485, Cccphilip, Monkbot, WikiWisePowder, Chrissmithhill,
Amortias, A Great Catholic Person, Vnprodev, EllaTasm, ProprioMe OW, Murph9000, CAPTAIN RAJU, Mahfuzcong, Jmcleod5997,
Hologuard, PrimeBOT and Anonymous: 205

6.2 Images
• File:Question_book-new.svg Source: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/9/99/Question_book-new.svg License: Cc-by-sa-3.0
Contributors:
Created from scratch in Adobe Illustrator. Based on Image:Question book.png created by User:Equazcion Original artist:
Tkgd2007

6.3 Content license

• Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0