Mary Killen Mary Killen

Dear Mary: How can we be sure our host gives us clean sheets?

[iStock] 
issue 05 September 2020

Q. Some friends persist on displaying our email addresses in large address lists when sending out round robins to all of their friends. How may I tactfully ask them to blind copy me, GDPR and all that? In chain recipe and joke emails, before you know it, there are 200 addresses included: a hacker’s dream, I’m told.
— Name and address withheld

A. Quite right. You need to spell out, to wilful Luddites, the potential nuisances that could arise from not using the ‘Bcc’ box. Next time reply with an email which shows only your own name in the ‘To’ section. Open with a reassurance, clearly meant for all, that everyone on the relevant list is receiving this email, but you have included the other addresses in the ‘Bcc’ box to comply with data protection regulations as well as for the purposes of outwitting fraudsters.

Q.

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