Blind carbon copy facts for kids
Blind carbon copy (often called Bcc) is a special way to send messages, especially emails. It lets the person sending the message hide some recipients from others who receive it. This idea started with paper letters and is now very common in email.
Imagine you're sending an email to a group of friends, but you don't want everyone to see everyone else's email address. That's where Bcc comes in handy!
When you send an email, you usually see three main fields for adding recipients:
- To: This is for the main people you are sending the email to.
- Cc: (which stands for Carbon copy) This is for other people who need to know about the email, but aren't the main focus. Everyone can see who is in the "To" and "Cc" fields.
- Bcc: (which stands for Blind carbon copy) This is for people who get a copy of the email, but their names and email addresses are hidden from everyone else in the "To" and "Cc" fields. Sometimes, people in the Bcc field can't even see each other's addresses!
It's a good idea to use Bcc when you're sending an email to a very large group, or to people who don't necessarily know each other. This is common for things like mailing lists.
Why Use Bcc?
There are several good reasons to use the Bcc feature:
- Avoid "Reply All" Problems: Bcc helps prevent a big mess if someone accidentally clicks "Reply All." If everyone is in Bcc, a reply will only go back to the original sender, not to the whole group. This can stop an email storm from happening!
- Keep Addresses Private: You might want to send a copy of an email to someone (like a parent or a teacher) without the main recipient knowing. Bcc lets you do this while keeping the third party's email address private.
- Send to Many Privately: You can send an email to many people without any of them knowing who else received it. To do this, you can put your own email address in the "To:" field and then add all the actual recipients to the "Bcc:" field.
- Clean Up Email Chains: If an email conversation is getting too long or involves people who no longer need to be part of it, the sender can "move people to Bcc." This means future replies won't include them, making the conversation easier to follow for the main participants. It's polite to mention in the email that some people have been moved to Bcc.
- Help Prevent Spam: Using Bcc can help stop the spread of computer viruses, spam, and malware. When you hide email addresses, it's harder for them to be collected and used in harmful ways, especially with things like chain letters.
Things to Consider About Bcc
While Bcc is useful, there are a few things to keep in mind:
- Privacy Concerns: Sometimes, using Bcc can feel a bit sneaky. The main person receiving the email might think they are only talking to known people, when others are secretly getting copies.
- Accidental Reveals: If someone in the Bcc list accidentally clicks "Reply All," they might reveal that they received the email. This can be awkward! To avoid this, it's sometimes better to just forward the original email separately.
- How it Looks: Depending on the email program, the recipient might or might not know that Bcc was used. Sometimes, they might see "undisclosed recipients" in the "To:" line. Other times, the email looks exactly like it was sent to just one person.
- Sharing Names: If you want people to know who else received a Bcc message (but not their email addresses), you can list their names in the body of the email. For example, you could write: "This message was also sent to [The whole team]."
See also
In Spanish: Copia de carbón oculta para niños
