• Re: Bcc: according to RFC 5322

    From Anton Shepelev@21:1/5 to All on Sun Jul 28 00:43:11 2024
    Sirius about the Bcc: field:

    It stands for "blind carbon copy" and thus should not see
    any recipient of the message apart from themselves. If
    they start seeing everyone else on Bcc in the message, it
    is no longer a "blind" carbon copy. IMHO

    The relevant RFCs (822, 2822, 5322) allow both approaches:

    1. each blind recipient can see only himself in the Bcc:
    line,

    2. each blind recipient can see all the other blind
    recipients on the Bcc: line.

    It it said with most clairyt in RFC 822, section 4.5.3:

    <https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/html/rfc822#section-4.5.3>

    The latter RFCs are more liberal, but their language is more
    formal. In 3.6.3 they say the copy sent to the blind
    recipients may contain a Bcc: line, but do not specify the
    contents of that line.

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  • From Anton Shepelev@21:1/5 to All on Sun Jul 28 00:35:51 2024
    Gary R. Schmidt to Grant Taylor:

    As such, BCC recipients would also not see themselves or
    other BCC recipients.

    When I was taught to type "Blind Carbon Copies" on manual
    typewriters, with real carbon paper, envelopes 9and
    stamps) that had to be moistened, the idea was that named
    recipients of such documents would not know who else might
    receive a copy.

    But that's a) Common Sense, and b) Basic English.

    Concealing blind (Bcc:) recipients from other (To:, Cc:),
    non-blind, recipients as a group makes sense as well, and is
    explicitely allowed in RFC 822, section 4.5.3:

    This field contains the identity of additional recipients
    of the message. The contents of this field are not
    included in copies of the message sent to the primary and
    secondary recipients. Some systems may choose to include
    the text of the "Bcc" field only in the author(s)'s copy,
    while others may also include it in the text sent to all
    those indicated in the "Bcc" list.

    And I am sure that RFCs 2822 and 5322 both only extend those
    requirements by adding more options for the handling of
    Bcc:, while remaining backwards compatible with 822. In the
    latter two RFCs, a Bcc: line listing all of the blind
    recipients is not forbidden in 3.6.3, and is also mentioned
    as a possible choice in section 5:

    If the "Bcc:" field sent contains all of the blind
    addressees, all of the "Bcc:" recipients will be seen by
    each "Bcc:" recipient.

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