Just a few notes about privacy and emails.
#1: No matter what you do there is NO real privacy when it comes to email. ***IF*** someone really wants to see what is going on (who all it’s going to) then there are ways to find out. It’s not difficult at all. Don’t believe for one minute that you are safe from spies because the email whizzes through cyberspace so fast. This is not true. The internet provider can provide a log of what is said, as can the email provider (if it is a separate company), and a crack with a computer can easily find it floating out there in archives in cyberspace. When it’s reached point B from point A, it’s not gone. The best solution for this particular part of your lesson ? is if the message is so important that others should not hear it or see it (i.e. of a very personal nature, or corporate secrets, etc.) then don’t send the communication via email.
#2: At the level of an average computer user some folks will know how to BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) and some will not.
It’s ok either way. This is a way to give recipients of emails some semblance of privacy. That includes me, who knows it gives no true privacy, because I know most people out there don’t know how to ‘hack’ the emails to get email addresses out of the email header. Blind Carbon Copy option is available In every email program I’ve ever used. It might be hidden but it’s always there so far as I can tell. Usually to unhide it, all you have to do is click the CC (carbon copy) or To buttons in the mail program to get it to show.
When you are mass mailing a group of people from a place like a school or business where privacy is a big issue then always, always send the email to yourself (NOTE: this particular email I sent to ME!). The TO: field should always say to Joe Blow, Perfectly Peggy, Office Supreme, or whoever you are. You can even customize your email. To have it say it’s from anyone, or anything you want. But that’s probably another lesson.
Then put all the folks you want to send an email to in the BCC field. It doesn’t matter if you want to send a group (called a Contact Group in Office 2010 and above, just called a group in Outlook 7 and below) or to a few individuals. The process is exactly the same.
Here are some pretty good resources about the BCC feature:
For Outlook 2010 http://support.microsoft.com/kb/299804
Outlook: http://blogs.office.com/b/microsoft-outlook/archive/2012/03/23/5-tips-on-using-bcc-in-outlook-.aspx
BCC in Thunderbird: http://www.howtogeek.com/79963/bcc-blind-carbon-copy-in-mozilla-thunderbird/
BCC in Gmail: https://support.google.com/mail/answer/57143?hl=en
BCC in Yahoo: http://help.yahoo.com/l/in/yahoo/mail/yahoomail/basics/basics-08.html
I hope this helps you all some! Peggy
