This came up the other day at work when we were talking about e-mail. He said that he didn’t understand the difference between CC and BCC. What amazes me more is how many other people have told me that. So for the sake of getting the record straight, here’s the different between To, CC, and BCC.

To: For contacts you are emailing directly.

CC: Stands for Carbon Copy or Courtesy Copy. This a field for people who may want to participate in the email, but don’t have to.

BCC: This is the one that confuses everybody. BCC stands for Blind Carbon Copy. This is for emailing multiple people who shouldn’t see each others address. This is commonly used for mailing lists and spam. If you are emailing the more than one person, this is the route to go since not everyone wants their email shown to the public.

So there you go, the broad difference between To, CC and BCC.

To BCC or Not BCC: Email Etiquette [Lifehack.org via Of Zen and Computing]