Preventing Digital Divides in Email

Why you should hide the addresses when you're emailing multiple recipients

• Your message will look better and be easier to read;
• You'll avoid cluttering your correspondents' hard disks;
• Your message will consume less bandwidth; and
• You'll protect the privacy of your correspondents.

Two ways to hide multiple addresses

1. Bcc: (Blind Courtesy/Carbon Copy)

Email programs generally allow you to copy messages to multiple addresses via a Cc: field, or by listing multiple addresses in the To: field, or via a Bcc: field. Simply by using the Bcc: field rather than the To: or Cc: fields, you can avoid displaying the addresses to recipients of the message.

Eudora displays the following fields in a new message window:

                To:
              From:
           Subject:
                Cc:
               Bcc:

In Outlook Express, however, the Bcc: field isn't normally visible. To use Bcc: in Outlook Express, open a new message window, go to the View menu and select All Headers.

If you leave the To: field blank, a message sent by Outlook Express will arrive addressed to "undisclosed recipients" and a message sent by Eudora will arrive addressed to (Recipient list suppressed)

*** but ***

some mail servers will bounce the email message if there isn't something in the To: field. You can simply put your own email address there, or you can add a description, as long as you put angle brackets round your email address, eg:

To: Multiple Recipients of Newsletter from <your-email@somewhere.com.au>

Using Bcc: is fine if you're just sending the odd message to multiple recipients, but if you're going to be writing to the same group of people often, you may wish to consider setting up an alias / nickname.

2. Alias / nickname

This is a single "name" you set up and write to, which sends your message to multiple email addresses without exposing the addresses to recipients.

When I wrote this page, I was under the impression that the Outlook Express "group name" function did this, but I've since been informed (thanks to an email of 25 November 2003 from Meir Kogman) that the Outlook Express "group name" is just a shortcut for the sender - it inserts all the addresses in the To: field.

If you frequently write to multiple recipients, I would suggest using an email program which helps you protect the privacy of your correspondents.

How to create an alias / nickname in Eudora

See How To Keep All The Addresses From Showing Up On The TO: Line

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Return Receipts: courtesy & privacy concerns

Attaching return receipts to a message may be considered an invasion of privacy.

- Arlene Rinaldi, The Net: User Guidelines and Netiquette, Electronic Communications

Is it rude to request a receipt? Some people consider a receipt request to be a gross violation of privacy.

'why should anyone know when I read my mail?'
'they are checking up on me'
'it is putting unfair pressure on me to reply.'

Others really do not mind. There is an argument that you would not send every item of 'snail mail' by recorded delivery, an electronic receipt is requested 'because I can' rather than 'because I need it'.

There may be times when a receipt is entirely appropriate - if there has been a server problem, for example, or if there is a time-limited discussion in progress.

Many mailing systems have an option of denying all receipt requests; many people use this facility.

- Andrew Heenan, NetiQuette Now, eMail NetiQuette

Receipts are insulting. You are saying to the recipient: 'You're a lazy schlub who never reads his email. I receipted this message so that I know you read the message. Now you have no excuse not to answer because I know you got the message.'

- Guy Kawasaki, Email Etiquette, The Computer Curmudgeon,
Hayden Books 1993-01