Paranoia – Spam and CC vs. BCC

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ChrisGreaves
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Paranoia – Spam and CC vs. BCC

Post by ChrisGreaves »

CCvsBCC.png
I am a tad paranoid about received emails which sport lengthy lists on the TO or the CC line, much preferring that senders use BCC.
Am I over-reacting?

My reaction is based on the days when I ran email off my private domain and a lengthy CC list meant a flood of spam in the following days.
Back then it seemed to me that if any one of the addressees had an infected machine, that was enough to spread to other infected machines unrelated to the mailing group at hand.
And so all it took was for ONE of the addressees to be indulging in Porn, Online Gambling, or Free Prizes and we were all in for a bash of spam.

Today is different.

Today I use GMail and I think that GMail is pretty good at shielding me from spam. Truth is I don’t get a lot of spam at all, perhaps one spam every two weeks or so. There again, my email burden is way down Lo these past four years.

Perhaps MSoft & Co. are better than I had thought at weeding out malware automatically with default updates and runs of Windows Defender and the ilk.
So for myself I probably should not bother about these visible TO and CC lists.

But perhaps it is still worthwhile pointing it out for the sake of other users?
(Please see also an associated thread “No BCC option?!!”)
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John Gray
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Re: Paranoia – Spam and CC vs. BCC

Post by John Gray »

I invariably complain to the originator should my email address be displayed in a long list of such addresses in the To or CC fields.

It is bad practice so to do, and arguably contravenes the UK's Data Protection Act.
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HansV
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Re: Paranoia – Spam and CC vs. BCC

Post by HansV »

I know that Canada is still part of the Commonweatlh of Nations, but does that imply that the UK Data Protection Act applies to Canada too?
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John Gray
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Re: Paranoia – Spam and CC vs. BCC

Post by John Gray »

No - Canada has its own laws, I presume!
Probably something equivalent?
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DaveA
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Re: Paranoia – Spam and CC vs. BCC

Post by DaveA »

Yes, it is still good to use BCC, as the addresses can still be sold to the spammers lists.
If not displayed they can not be captured and sold.
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BobH
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Re: Paranoia – Spam and CC vs. BCC

Post by BobH »

I would like to disable CC in Thunderbird because I accidentally click it when trying to click BCC.

I wonder if it is possible to do so.
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HansV
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Re: Paranoia – Spam and CC vs. BCC

Post by HansV »

I don't think that's possible, but I'm not a Thunderbird expert.
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viking33
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Re: Paranoia – Spam and CC vs. BCC

Post by viking33 »

BobH wrote:I would like to disable CC in Thunderbird because I accidentally click it when trying to click BCC.

I wonder if it is possible to do so.
I found this one in the Mozilla Forums and seems like the only one that doesn't involve hacking the code like a hunter and his machete in the jungle. Give it a try?
----------------------------------


On the tools menu (alt+T) > open account settings
select copies and folders. and make sure CC and BCC these addresses is not set. ( checked )

Also restart with addons disabled from the help menu and see if that stops the automatic insert, as I assure you it does not do that for me.

While the number of to boxes can be forced to one, it is not a good idea as that whole header turns into a squeeze if you click reply all to a mail with more than one recipient.
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BobH
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Re: Paranoia – Spam and CC vs. BCC

Post by BobH »

I posted a query on the Mozilla Forums. While I did not receive instructions for modifying Thunderbird, I did learn that there is an extension called Use Bcc Instead that allows one to have better control over what fields to use.

Here is the option panel for it (the settings are mine, not defaults):
Use Bcc Instead Options Panel.png
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ChrisGreaves
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Re: Paranoia – Spam and CC vs. BCC

Post by ChrisGreaves »

John Gray wrote:I invariably complain to the originator
Thanks John. I was trying not to complain to the Offender as much as alert him, to educate him, perhaps. As you might have gathered, I appear to have been unsuccessful (unless he crawls abjectly on his hands and knees next Tuesday evening ...)
It is bad practice so to do, and arguably contravenes the UK's Data Protection Act.
Thanks too for this. I shall look up the act.
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ChrisGreaves
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Re: Paranoia – Spam and CC vs. BCC

Post by ChrisGreaves »

HansV wrote:I know that Canada is still part of the Commonweatlh of Nations, but does that imply that the UK Data Protection Act applies to Canada too?
Probably not; I think Canada is now well-and-truly separated from the UK in terms of law - excepting that we follow the same principles. I doubt that there is a UK law that can be applied in Canada. I suspect that even Treason is a Canadian offence (as it is an Australian offence, which Leonard George Casley got around by swearing allegiance to "Elizabeth Windsor".)
But I digress (as usual)

Canada does have pretty strict anti-spam laws, and Michael Geist has written many articles in the past about the CRTC and various bodies growing teeth.
Only a month or so ago I read an article in The Toronto Star about serious fines (not your $100 variety either) being slapped on offending companies.

Cheers
Chris
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