What about this case: You need to send an email to a single person, it is only relevant to them. However, in response to the message, the recipient is likely to a) respond to sender, or b) call a third party for further clarification.
Third party is not interested in the topic of the email, and only becomes interested if recipient follows up with him instead of reply. This is a case where third party should be BCC rather than CC, since they should have no interest in the email.
Imagine a manager. If all is going well, they don't need to read all the interim details. If something is not going well, they will want to go back and read details before responding poorly.
I will concede one occasion where BCC is appropriate:
-------- From: Warren Buffet To: Candidate A, Candidate B, Candidate C, Candidate D Subj: Succession
Dear Applicant, Congratulations, I have chosen a list of candidates to succeed me, which includes you. A candidate which is still alive by the time I am unable to run Berkshire Hathaway will be chosen at random.
Sincerely, WB --------
When you need to protect your recipients' identities (not just because of spam, R.I.P. 2004) you should explicitly describe the nature and quantity of the recipient list.
Comments
You need to send an email to a single person, it is only relevant to them. However, in response to the message, the recipient is likely to a) respond to sender, or b) call a third party for further clarification.
Third party is not interested in the topic of the email, and only becomes interested if recipient follows up with him instead of reply. This is a case where third party should be BCC rather than CC, since they should have no interest in the email.
from: coworker_a
to: me
subj: work
please do this work
this is how i'd read the second:
from: coworker_a
to: me
cc: boss
subj: work
please do this work
ps, big brother is watching
which effect would you rather your message have?
Here is my reply: what is spam?
Do you know that gmail came out in 2004 and I haven't gotten spam since?
--------
From: Warren Buffet
To: Candidate A, Candidate B, Candidate C, Candidate D
Subj: Succession
Dear Applicant,
Congratulations, I have chosen a list of candidates to succeed me, which includes you. A candidate which is still alive by the time I am unable to run Berkshire Hathaway will be chosen at random.
Sincerely,
WB
--------
When you need to protect your recipients' identities (not just because of spam, R.I.P. 2004) you should explicitly describe the nature and quantity of the recipient list.