Mailing lists should default to BCC
Categories
(Thunderbird :: Address Book, enhancement)
Tracking
(Not tracked)
People
(Reporter: heino.backhaus, Unassigned)
References
Details
(Keywords: privacy, ux-error-prevention)
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 10.0; Win64; x64; rv:69.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/69.0
Steps to reproduce:
Create a Mailing-Linst. Then create and send amail to that list.
Actual results:
All the recipients can see each others mailaddresses.
Expected results:
An automatic bcc selection for Mailing-Lists. Because of the generally existing risk of human error. Therefore it should be better to choose an option per default that generate no disadvantages.
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Comment 1•5 years ago
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Why don't you put the mailing list into the BCC? There is legitimate use of sending openly to a mailing list.
WONTFIX, Magnus?
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Comment 2•5 years ago
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dup of bug 163498 ?
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Comment 3•5 years ago
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No, not a dupe. That bug is about storing CC/BCC in the mailing list. The request here, if I understand it correctly, is to always switch to BCC if a mailing list is used. I don't think that's desirable.
Thanks for Answering,
the point is a German Law called DSGVO. This law is intend to protects privacy and prohibits sending those Mailing-lists in the "to" field, because every receipient can see every Emailadresses.
So, of course, whe put the lists into BCC, but the factor of human error is > 0 therefor mistakes a garanteed. If it defaults to bcc, there would be less conflicts with german law.
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Comment 5•5 years ago
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https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datenschutz-Grundverordnung
Well, I'm in the Beirat of the Wohnungseigentümergemeinschaft (WEG) where I live an I have a mailing list called Beirat if I want to send something to all my colleagues.
Always putting the mailing list into the BCC is just not feasible. You could request an enhancement to mark certain mailing lists as BCC only, which comes close to bug 163498.
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Updated•5 years ago
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The requested solution in Bug 163498 is indeed very similar, but for different purposes. I don't whant to send spam and get through anti-spam filters. My case seems to be more the opposit purpose. As I'm forced to protect the privacy of the People in my Mailing list.
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Comment 7•5 years ago
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Agreed, there are other solutions for this.
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Comment 8•5 years ago
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Jorg K writes:
Always putting the mailing list into the BCC is just not feasible.
Nobody is suggesting forcing mailing lists as Bcc:. Currently you type the name of a mailing list into the address field and you can choose To:, Cc:, or Bcc:. All that's being suggested here is to default to Bcc: for mailing lists - you can always change it later.
Magnus writes:
there are other solutions
Yes, there are other solutions, but that does not reduce the desirability of this feature. We see many changes to Thunderbird with each release, but many of them have "other solutions" other than a change to the program.
Protecting privacy is of paramount importance in the online world these days. More than just being good practice, it's also the law in many jurisdictions (GDPR, for example). Pasting distribution lists into a To: field (vs. Bcc:) by default is a vulnerability that just about everyone has fallen victim to, either as a sender or recipient. Protecting our users against this error only serves to enhance the reputation of Thunderbird as a mail client that cares about the needs of its users' privacy.
What might a solution look like?
The ideal solution would be radio buttons at the top of a mailing list: Send as To:/Cc:/Bcc:, with Bcc the default on installation. A parameter in about:config would override this default.
A less ideal, but still workable solution, would be to automatically set the addressing field to Bcc: when a mailing list is pasted in. A user could always change this to To: or Cc:. The behavior could be controlled by a parameter in about:config, allowing Jorg to set his client to default to To: if that's what he wished. But the default on installation should be Bcc:, at least in GDPR countries (and maybe California, and ...?)
Or perhaps Magnus might share an "other solution" that achieves the goal of reliably using Bcc: for mailing lists.
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Comment 9•5 years ago
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Bug 271405 would be one.
I'd say for privacy, revealing an email address to a few others is really not a thing. Many times showing who received things is desirable so you can actually have the conversation you're having. If there are 100 people on the list, then it might be a slight problem. I don't think lists of 10-15 people are a great concern.
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Comment 10•5 years ago
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Magnus wrote:
I'd say for privacy, revealing an email address to a few others is really not a thing.
Imagine accidentally sending an unblinded email "Dear STD patient" to even two people.
But let's just cut to the chase. If you follow Magnus's link, read through 16 years of discussion on this topic, you will discover there is an updated add-on for the current release that will provide the capability discussed here.
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Comment 11•2 years ago
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The current summary is a bit self-contradictory, let's try to simplify this per comment 0.
Description
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