Tuesday, November 12, 2019

What does “To:,” “Cc:,” and “Bcc:” mean in emails?

When we send an email via a provider, such as Gmail or Outlook, in the “To” field we enter the email of the recipient that we want to send our mail. However, as we know, we can put more than one recipient, but still sent it once. Here is a comprehensive guide on how to do it right.
   With an email, recipients of a message are specified using addresses in any of these three (3) fields, according with the “Standard for the Format of ARPA Network Text messages” (obsolete RFC #733) (November 21, 1977):
a) “To:” Send mail to primary recipients.
b) “Cc:” Send a carbon copy to secondary recipients.
c) “Bcc:” Blind carbon copy to tertiary recipients.
   The primary and secondary recipients cannot see the tertiary recipients. Depending on email provider and software, the tertiary recipients may only see their own email address in Bcc, or they may see the email addresses of all primary and secondary recipients.
   Blind carbon copy (Bcc) allows the sender of a message to conceal the recipient entered in the field from the other recipients. Nowadays, it is common practice to use the “Bcc:” field when addressing a long list of recipients, or a list of recipients who should not (necessarily) see each other, e.g. in advertisement mailing lists, or corporate document shares.
   Also, “Bcc” is used to prevent an accidental “Reply All” from sending a reply intended for only the originator of the message to the entire recipient list. However, both “Bcc” and “Cc” options are useful in terms of preventing the spread of computer viruses, spam, and malware by avoiding the accumulation of block-list email addresses available to all recipients.
   Finally, be aware that in some cases, the use of blind carbon copy may be viewed as partly unethical. We must use it only when required and avoid any conflicts between individuals during this communication channels. For this reason, it is better to separately forward the original email.

Note:
ARPA, Advanced Research Projects Agency
RFC: Request of Comments
Δρ. Κωνσταντίνος Μάντζαρης, Dr. Konstantinos Mantzaris, Economistmk

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