Most people when sending email send using the to line, some even venture to the cc line (carbon copy) but very few venture into the realms of the Bcc line (blind carbon copy).

The answer is usually because they are blissfully unaware of the existence of the Bcc line. Most email clients including Outlook Express and IncrediMail do not show the Bcc line on the default new email form when composing an email.

To Use the Bcc line you must normally first enable it. These screen shots show how to enable Bcc in Outlook Express . The process for Incredimail is similar.

What is the Bcc Line and why Use it?

The Bcc line (blind copy)is used to send email to someone without other recipients of the email being aware that it was sent to those recipients. It is effectively a way of hiding email recipients from each other. Its main use is when sending email to mailing lists ( email groups).

If you send an email to recipients using the to and or the cc line the recipients of the email can clearly see who the email was sent to. If one of the recipients was a mailing list then all recipients can clearly see the recipients on the mailing list.

This has two consequences

1. If the mailing list is confidential (list of clients) then it isn't anymore.
2. If anyone does a reply to all the reply is sent to everyone on both the original to and cc line.

Putting the mailing list on the Bcc line solves both of these problems.

I would urge anyone who send email to mailing lists or mailing groups to consider using the Bcc line in future. However it is especially important for very large mailing lists and confidential lists.