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Tip: AOL's BCC Explained
I'm not sure that this is asked often enough to really be a FAQ, so I'll answer it here.
Every now and than, an AOL member asks about why the AOL BCC function isn't working. BCC -- or Blind Carbon Copy -- is the method by which you send a copy of an email to a person without any of the other recipients knowing. Sometimes this is used surreptitiously, sometimes just to avoid giant public distribution lists that are better kept private. In fact, just about any time you send an email to a large group of people, it's a good idea to use BCC.
AOL's handling of BCC is especially smart (mainly when dealing with AOL recipients, of course). And it's so subtle.
The reason you might think BCC isn't working is because AOL is smart enough to know that you have the "rights" to see all the recipients of your message. So when you look at a message in your Sent folder, or if you include yourself as one of the message's recipients (either TO, CC, or BCC) -- you'll still see the whole list of recipients. Don't worry, everyone else won't see them. You can test this by sending your message to another Screen Name on your account.
You'll also see the whole list if one of your recipients forwards your message back to you.
Here's the really freaky thing. Let's say Person A sends an email BCCed to Person B and Person C. Person B forwards that message to Person C. Person C will see their own Screen Name in the original BCC field -- because they received that original message! Pretty cool, eh?
Note that none of this works the same way with third-party email clients. Some email programs keep track of the BCC recipients you send (you usually have to open up the message in its own window rather than the Preview Pane), but you won't get the more intelligent information from the server.
So relax, BCC works just fine. It's just a little smarter than we give it credit for!
For more information about sending BCCs using AOL, see AOL Help article "Sending Blind Copies."
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Adam: With respect to your cool analysis of the Bcc - I suspected AOL was smart, and kept it secret - but I was freaked out when I got an email back, and saw private info in it --your analysis seems correct according to my own investigation -one friend reported to me that the private information stayed just that way -private.
Thank you for your analysis --I only hope that my own web sites and varied pages are as cool or helpful and healthy.
gordon in lakeland
Gordon Wayne Watts http://GordonWatts.com
BS, The Florida State University, Biological and Chemical Sciences
AS, United Electronics Institute
http://HomeTown.AOL.com/Gww1210 or http://www.GeoCities.com/Gord on_Watts32313
Gww1210@aol.com ; Gww12102002@Yahoo.com
Truth is the strongest, most stable force in the Universe.
TRUTH doesn't bend to the will of tyrants.
Get Truth.
"First, they [Nazis] came for the Jews. I was silent. I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Communists. I was silent. I was not a Communist. Then they came for the trade unionists. I was silent. I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for me. There was no one left to speak for me." (Martin Niemoller, given credit for a quotation in The Harper Religious and Inspirational Quotation Companion, ed. Margaret Pepper (New York: Harper &Row, 1989), 429 -as cited on page 44, note 17, of Religious Cleansing in the American Republic, by Keith A. Fornier, Copyright 1993, by Liberty, Life, and Family Publications.
(Actually, they may not have come for the Jews first, as it's far more likely they came for the prisoners, mentally handicapped, and other so-called "inferiors" first -as historians tell us -so they could get "practiced up;" But, they did come for them -due to the silence of their neighbors -and due, in part, to their own silence. So the general idea is correct: "Speak up now, or forever hold your peace." --Gordon)
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10/6/07 8:50 AM
Brilliant, I just received a my own email forwarded back to me as you describe and was horrified to see all the BCC addresses printed out in the forwarded copy.
Thanks for putting my mind at rest.
Peter.