CC (Carbon Copy)

CC (carbon copy), known in Polish as DW (Do Wiadomości), is an email address field used for people who should receive a visible copy of a message — not as the primary recipient, but for their information. Everyone on the message can see who is in the CC field, which makes it a tool for transparent communication in business correspondence.

How the CC field works

A typical email has three address fields:

• To — the primary recipient, from whom a response is usually expected;
• CC — people receiving a visible copy, for their information;
• BCC — people receiving a hidden copy, invisible to the others.

Based on these fields, the mail server delivers the message to all listed recipients over the SMTP protocol. The key difference from BCC is visibility: CC addresses are exposed to the whole list, while BCC addresses stay hidden.

Practical applications

CC is used in business communication to keep additional people — a manager, a department or a colleague — informed of a thread without asking them to reply. A good rule of thumb is that the To field is for people you expect something from, while CC is for people who only need to stay in the loop. In line with good netiquette, you should not overuse CC by copying in too many people, and you should avoid disclosing strangers' addresses; for mass sending, BCC or dedicated email marketing tools are the right choice. Be mindful of Reply All too: used carelessly, it can flood the inboxes of everyone in the CC field with unnecessary messages. Every email client and webmail interface supports the CC field, and its contents are stored in the message headers, so the full list of visible recipients can always be checked later.