I'm not normally neurotic about online security, and I'm only sometimes grumpy. But I do get VERY PISSED OFF INDEED with friends and acquaintances who send emails to a whole group of their friends/acquaintances, with everyone's email addresses en clair.

To anyone who does that, I always feel like saying (through gritted teeth):

"Yes, I need to know that your email address has changed, and yes, I am happy to be on your mailing list for one reason or another*. But that really doesn't mean I'm happy for my email to be known by everyone else you know. That's how spam spreads, folks. If the the group of people you're mailing haven't explicitly agreed that they all want to talk to each other, then please use BCC. It's really not difficult."

And if you feel this way too, feel free to share it, and join my Twitter campaign to #UseBCC ...

Emma

*at least, probably I'm happy. Did you, oh person I scarcely know, ASK if you could take my email from an individual exchange, and use it to send me every flicker of news, without an 'unsubscribe' link, about every blogpost and self-publishing venture that are more properly publicised on FB? Because if you didn't and you don't, I'm even more pissed off with your bad manners.

God, Emma, couldn't agree with you more. It really, really pisses me off too. I never say anything, but you have just made me resolve to do so in future.

I've just been told the most fantastically hideous BCC story, which I've sworn not to pass on. But it's an object lesson in the genuine business horrors that can be caused...

Sympathy Emma - Very much agree! I left Social Services at begining of year and despite forests of trees being sacrificed about privacy and personal information I still get emails from ex work collegues with a quiant mix of private email addresses and svs user email contacts on a mix of round robbin jokes and news that I don't want and I don't want them to have mine and recently we all caught a nifty virus which sent out email from our accounts either implying 'we' were all stuck somewhere and needed money or asking folk to ring urgently- Mums friends all thought something had happened to her as they all suddenly had these email from 'me'- I can't imagine what any vulnerable svs users thought hearing half their carers were stuck in Africa and couldn't get back without money!!! We back tracked it to one of my ex managers email account! I volunteered with Youth Offending for a while and again it really isn't safe to ignore protocols on this but every one thinks it is OK- till it bites them on the back side! The woman concerned still doesn't get it so I have blocked her. I still have all her friends and family and co workers and all their contacts being thrust at me as potential 'friends'- I have no idea who they are and it drives me nuts and I have no Public Profile as you do so I can only imagine the scale of it you have to put up with. Next time I get some strangers baby photos I am going to post some pictures of culled, plucked and gutted chickens in various states of potential distress, actual undress and dismemberment that I took when I thought I might like to do an article of the 'how to' kind in the hopes they will think me a psychotic and delete me. I could lend them to you- they are a little fuzzy...I changed my mind about the article any way! MC

Edited by Alex29 at 21:19:00 on 23 September 2013