What Does BCC Mean in Email?

Email is an essential part of most people’s daily lives. Whether it’s used at work, to keep in touch with family and friends, or to send newsletters and promotional material, email is here to stay. But do you ever wonder what certain email terms mean, such as BCC? Let’s look at what BCC stands for, why you should use it, and how to use it the right way.

What Does BCC Stand For?

BCC stands for Blind Carbon Copy. It’s a way of hiding the addresses of everyone in the email list. BCC is great for when you want to email multiple recipients without each one seeing the email addresses of the others.

Why Should You Use BCC When Emailing Multiple People?

The purpose of using BCC when sending emails to multiple people is to protect individual email addresses from being seen by other recipients. You might be concerned that some recipients on a shared email list might use it in malicious or spammy ways. If email addresses were visible to every recipient, then each of them could add the same person to their own lists and you could be inundated with spam.

Using BCC also makes the To: field more manageable and less crowded, making it easier to quickly identify all the persons it is intended for.

How to Use BCC Correctly

The easiest and most secure way to use BCC when emailing multiple people is to add the addresses you want to BCC in the BCC field prior to composing the email. Then copy the addresses from the BCC field over to the To: field before you hit ‘Send’. This way no one you’re sending to will see all the addresses you’re sending to, and each recipient will only know their own address.

Another way to use BCC correctly is to use the same BCC for everyone you’re sending to and put your own address in the To: field. This will let each person know you sent out the message, while sparing everyone else from seeing a long list of email addresses in the To: field.

Conclusion

BCC is a great tool to use when sending emails to multiple people. It helps keep your email list secure and confidential, while also helping make your To: field look cleaner and more organized. As long as you’re taking the steps to use BCC correctly, your email will be much more secure and you won’t have to worry about your messages being shared with the wrong recipients.