Sending Emails With a Mozilla Thunderbird Mailing List

How to protect the privacy of email recipients on a group email

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By
Heinz Tschabitscher
Heinz Tschabitscher
Writer
A former freelance contributor who has reviewed hundreds of email programs and services since 1997.
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Heinz Tschabitscher
Updated October 25, 2019

A mailing list is a subset of a Mozilla Thunderbird Address Book. When you send an email to all the members of a mailing list, it's courteous to hide the names and email addresses of the individuals on the list from all the other recipients. To accomplish this, address the email to yourself and add the members of the mailing list as BCC recipients. This way, only the recipient's address and yours is visible. After you set up a mailing list in Mozilla Thunderbird's address book, here's how to send a message to all its members while protecting their privacy.

How to Send a Message to a Mailing List in Mozilla Thunderbird

To compose an email to all members of an address book group in Mozilla Thunderbird:

  1. In the Thunderbird toolbar, click Write to open a new email.

  2. In the To field, enter your email address.

    Screenshot of Mozilla Thunderbird

  3. Click the second address line and change To to Bcc.

    Screenshot of Mozilla Thunderbird

  4. Click the Contacts toolbar button to access your email addresses and mailing lists.

    If your version of Thunderbird doesn't show the Contacts button, right-click the toolbar and choose Customize. Then, drag the Contacts button to the toolbar. To open Contacts using a keyboard shortcut, press Ctrl+Shift+B.

    Screenshot of Mozilla Thunderbird

  5. Select the mailing list in the Contacts list and drag it to the Bcc field.

    Screenshot of Mozilla Thunderbird

  6. Compose your message and attach any files or images.

  7. Select Send.