E-mail - Blind Copies

After receiving some e-mails recently I noticed that many people send the same message to a number of persons by entering all the addresses of the intended recipients in the "To:" and/or the "Cc:" panels.  While, admittedly, this does the trick it has the unfortunate result of everyone who receives the message being able to see the e-mail addresses of all the other people to whom the e-mail was sent.  And if the e-mail is then forwarded there is a further undesirable knock-on effect.

When this happens, not only are privacy considerations breached there is also a much greater risk of e-mail addresses being harvested by spammers - which is not a good thing!

Happily, here is a solution with screenshots from Outlook Express being used for illustration purposes:

Figure 1.

Figure 2.

1. In Outlook Express, 'Create Mail' and, from the panel which will appear,

2. Go to 'View' and then 'All Headers'. (Fig 1.)

3. Ensure 'All Headers' is selected with a tick and an additional panel - 'Bcc' will appear (Fig 2.)

4. Using your usual method - i.e. Either by typing-in or selecting from your address book - enter your intended recipients' names in the 'Bcc' panel. (Fig 3.)

5. When received, each recipient will not see any of the other names and addresses to whom the e-mail has also been sent.

So are there any snags to doing this?

Figure 3

Not really although it might be best if there was a way to have something other than 'Undisclosed recipient' in the 'To:' panel which is what normally happens by default.

Fortunately, there is a way around this and all you have to do is send the e-mail to yourself as well as all the other people you are sending it to but do ensure you insert your address in the 'To:' panel in the following manner:  (Please note the < and >).

My Friend <yourname@yourdomain.co.uk> 

If you do this, all the recipients of your e-mail will see 'My Friend' (or whatever you choose to type-in - e.g. 'Angling Club Member', 'Football Fanatic' etc.) in the 'To:' panel.

The above guidelines also apply to Vista's Windows Mail.

Other providers such as AOL incorporate the same facility but slightly different procedures apply so you will need to consult the respective 'Help' resources.