Mail/Contacts/Groups

I have over 400 names in my contacts. Many have been been divided into groups. I have always assured contacts that their email address is secure, and that I don't 'display' their addresses when mass mailing. I was under the misapprehension that by using just the Group name in the 'To.' window, that contacts' email addresses would not be displayed.I have mailed hundreds of emails both for myself and for other charities etc., always of the impression that no email addresses would be displayed, as I understood that to be the point of creating Groups. But that hasn't been the case, as I was recently informed that all email addresses were always visible.I have tried to solve this issue by placing the Group name in the Bcc window, and entering my own email address in the 'To." window, in order to send the email. Can anyone advise whether my assumptions were correct, and contacts in Groups' addresses should not be displayed. How can this be corrected.

The only way to correct that is to send emails individually to each recipient. That is the way it is intended to work.

What is in the CC: window and the TO: window is visible to everyone. BCC is the way to send and hide the other recipients. That's how mail has worked on both Macs and PCs for just about forever. The only reason for Groups is to make it easier for the sender to select a whole bunch of folks all at once. So, your misapprehension was truly a misapprehension. There is nothing to correct, that's how email works.

BCC stands for Blind Carbon Copy, by the way, with the "Blind" part meaning that everyone else is "blind" to the addressees in that box. That's a term from before electronics, I am old enough to remember when a BCC was a literal carbon copy of a paper document that you sent to someone that you wanted to see the document but didn't want anybody else to know you had done that. You let that recipient know that he/she wasn't "officially" to know what was in the document by showing them as a BCC on that one copy.

I am old enough to remember when a BCC was a literal carbon copy of a paper document

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And they still sell it, but are typewriters even used these days that are usually required to use it???
http://www.staples.com/Staples-Carbon-Paper-8-1-2-inch-x-11-inch-Black/product_150912

Yes, I know it has other uses, but still neat stuff that's still used, even if not always with letters and typewriters.






- Patrick
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but sending individual emails, defeats the whole purpose of Groups surely.
Thanks,
Dewiwyn

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I'd agree completely and I always thought that was what the Bcc address was for.






- Patrick
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The standard etiquette for sending bulk emails is to put your name in the "To" line and everybody else's in the "Bcc" line.

This way, each individual gets there own email with just your email address shown as sender. They do not see anybody else's email.

Apart from courtesy, this stops people from replying using "Reply to All" which clutters everybody's Inbox with trivia. An individual can only reply to you.

Ian

As Ian said, you can still use Groups, just don't put the group name in the TO field, put it in BCC. And that's not new, it's been that way from just about the beginning of email (at least, email after they created the BCC field back in about 1990).