Common Sense Business # 16

By Stan Rosenzweig

When someone who works for you sends an email to everyone in your Outlook address book by entering each name in the "To:" window:

1. you reach your recipients in one fell swoop,
2. you provide immediate information to all, and
3. you look like a foolish jerk.

Why? Because:

1. Giving everyone's email address to everyone else on your list causes them security nightmares. In today's spam, phishing and pharming world, such careless stupidity is resented.
2. You throw open your entire database to everyone to use for their own purposes. It's charitable, to say the least.

I have received dozens of emails from some of the biggest companies, with my email address and everyone else's lumped into the "To:" window in my email message.

In each case, I have gone on to harvest the entire email list of each of those companies. Why not? They gave it away didn't they? It's happened with America's largest phone companies, computer companies, software companies and a prestigious public relations firm. I am amazed.

No, big companies aren't so dumb as to freely give away their private database information. But they are certainly dumb in critical security handling.

You say, "Hey Joe. Send this out to everyone on my email list. Stat."

Joe says, "Sure boss." And goodbye to that private database.

Want two ways to send multiple email messages without compromising security of others and your own? First, publish an office procedure that absolutely no emails are to be multiple mailed to more than five addresses in the "To:" window. Instruct all employees as follows if you have Outlook Express (Look in the "help" section of your application, if you use something else):

1. Click on "CREATE MAIL" just as you always do.
2. Click on "VIEW" and make sure you have "All Headers" selected
3. Now, add all of your email addresses to the "Bcc:" window instead of the "To:" window.