Don't Misuse Email - As you know email is very flexible and a good way of communicating with just one or several people at once but think carefully about sending block emails because they allow everyone who receives them to see the email addresses of everyone else. When people provide you with an e-mail address, either directly or by sending you a message, there is usually the implicit expectation that you will not reveal it to others without their permission. You should respect their privacy and safeguard their information.

 Just as you wouldn't appreciate your place of employment giving out your personal contact information, many people feel the same way about their e-mail address. In fact privacy has become a serious issue on the Internet and concern will continue to grow as people realize the commercial value of their private information and the problem of spam (unsolicited and unwanted commercial or non-commercial e-mails) affects more people.

Email Etiquette

The volume of spam has become so large compared to legitimate mail that it threatens the future of e-mail.  Nevertheless you might have valid reasons to use this kind of bulk mail so here are some tips on how to do it using the proper etiquette.

Single Addressee using To: - If you are mailing the message to only one address then the TO: option should be used. When more than one person is included in the address you have to determine what is the best way to address mail so that lots of addresses are not listed for the recipients unless it is absolutely necessary in the context of the message. If the message requires action by several people (as opposed to being just for information) you can place multiple email addresses in the To: field by separating them with a semicolon.

Multiple Addresses using CC: - This is standard practice when an email is addressed to someone for action using the To: field and to others for information only using the CC:  (Carbon Copy) field.  It works well for internal email within companies and between groups or organizations where privacy is unlikely to be threatened. However all the addresses can be seen by all who receive the message so this method is inappropriate for general mail across the Internet. Sadly the majority of people who send jokes and other 'junk' email do not understand the meaning or etiquette so the potential security risks are very real.

Multiple Addresses using BCC: - This is a better way of sending email to several recipients without revealing their email addresses. BCC: (Blind Carbon Copy) will hide the address list from all the recipients. Only the person's own address will appear. Some e-mail programs place "undisclosed recipients" in that address field instead. You may wish to indicate the general nature of the address list at the beginning of your message. Using a generic term such as "Forwarded to Sales Staff" lets people know who else has received the message without revealing names or address information.

As an example of using all these options, consider the following message:-

All the recipients will be aware of both John Brown and Jenny Wren but only the sender and Someone Else (BCC:) are aware that Someone Else received a copy of the message - everyone listed in BCC: is invisible to everyone else who receives it including those in the TO: and CC: fields.

In the likely event of a large group being entered into the Blind Carbon Copy field, you can appreciate the result -- a clean message free of long address lists and the maintenance of individual privacy for everyone. In fact you needn't use the TO: or CC: fields at all if you want to maintain complete privacy for all concerned.

Few things are as irritating as receiving a message with a page or more of e-mail addresses followed by only four lines of text. Not only is this very poor etiquette, but it also invites misuses of those addresses by any of the recipients or anyone to whom they might forward the message. Indeed I regularly receive jokes and other spam email from friends and they seem oblivious to the fact that they have sent me scores of forwarded email addresses for people I have never met or even heard of. Imagine the havoc this could cause if any of those messages fell into the wrong hands - as they frequently do much to my frustration. 

I regularly receive emails addressed to me personally from people who ought not to know my email address and I am well aware that this is partly the fault of friends or acquaintances who insist on sending me such material irresponsibly. Perhaps when they read this they will understand why I prefer them to use my Hotmail address so their messages go directly into the Junk folder. Unfortunately this means that I probably miss legitimate emails from those same people but that's the price I'm willing to pay for security and privacy.

Email Attachments

Email is a good vehicle for sending documents, pictures and software over the Internet and is so much faster than tradition mail or fax. Unfortunately, inexperienced users often fail for the simplest of reasons so here's a step by step procedure to help you do it properly. (Coming shortly)