Confusion About Blogger / Google Support Policies

We're seeing confusion, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, about unfairly limited Blogger / Google support policies.

Why can I not Follow my favourite blog, without using a Google account?

and

Why must I upgrade my computer, to be able to use Chrome?

Some blog owners and readers take the support policy limits personally, as if Blogger / Google is punishing them - or their readers - for not using the right account to login, or not upgrading their software.

Every different account host - and every different browser or operating system - requires more unique code, that must be provided by Blogger / Google, in their libraries.

Blogger / Google are trying to make their products efficient and stable.

Blogger / Google is trying to make their applications and browser more stable. More stable products yield happier users, and more users.

Complex code libraries, caused by the need to support every different non Google account (previously supported by Blogger), and every different operating system of every age, cause Chrome and Followers to be slow and unstable. Slow and unstable applications and browsers yield unhappy users, and less users.

More complex code libraries require Blogger / Google to spend more time updating their code, for every change made outside Google.

Which choice makes more sense?

1. Less complex applications and browsers, less time spent maintaining less complex code libraries, more customers, more satisfied customers.
2. More complex applications and browsers, more time spent maintaining more complex code libraries, less customers, less satisfied customers.

My money says Door #1 makes the most sense, from a business viewpoint.

Efficient and stable applications require effort by users, as well as coders.

Blogger / Google simply can't support every different non Google account in their applications, and every different browser and operating system, and maintain a business. People who want to use Blogger and Google have to make some effort, and help Blogger and Google to help them.

Blogger cannot support non Google accounts, and provide an efficient and stable Followers gadget.



If you try to update Chrome - and you see advice

Sorry, you can't update Chrome, using this operating system.

or if you (or your readers) try to Follow your blog, and see

We're sorry, the site owner has blocked you from joining this site.

Neither refusal is Blogger / Google being petty, and forcing you (or your readers) from having unlimited choice, capriciously. This simply represents Blogger / Google making a tough choice, and trying to provide efficient and stable products, for their customers who are willing to make some effort.

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Some blog owners do not understand the need for #Blogger and #Google to support use of a limited range of non Blogger / Google products, in their various features. Support policy for products like the new Followers gadget, which now supports only Google accounts for Following - and Chrome, which supports only newer versions of Windows operating system - are not understood.

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Deleting Your Blogger Account

We see regular queries about deleting a Blogger account, in Blogger Help Forum: Learn More About Blogger.

A Blogger account is simply a Google account, used to publish or read blogs. If you want to delete a Blogger account, you need to delete the Google account.

If you are using your Google account for other services, maybe GMail, Google+, and / or YouTube, you won't want to delete your Google account. But you can make the Blogger portion of your Google account invisible, to the public.

With a little planning, you can make your Blogger account empty and invisible, to the world.

Delete, or transfer ownership of, any blogs that you own.

If you have any Blogger blogs, you'll want to delete them - but plan the deletion, for best results. Alternately, you may prefer to transfer ownership of your blog(s), to a different Blogger / Google account.

Edit your profile, and remove all personal details - and make it private.

If you're using a Blogger profile on your Blogger account, edit your Blogger profile, and remove any personal details that people surf - like Location, Work, and Additional Information.

Remove all personal details.



Then, uncheck "Show my profile". With your blogs gone, and your profile empty and private, there won't be any way for folks to find your Blogger account.

Uncheck "Show my profile", as a final step.



If you have a Google+ profile, check that, too.

If you are using a Google+ profile, with your Google account, edit check your posts and your Google+ profile, for any mention of your Blogger blogs.

Finally, don't publish any Blogger blogs - and you won't have a Blogger account. This may be part of the process of making yourself anonymous.

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Some blog owners decide to delete their #Blogger accounts, without understanding that you can't separate Blogger from Google. A Blogger account cannot be deleted, without deleting the Google account.

With a little effort and planning, though, you can remove all traces of a Blogger account - and leave the Google account intact.

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Google Accounts, With Blogger Profiles, Are Limited

We're seeing a few questions, in Blogger Help Forum: Get Help with an Issue, about new Blogger / Google accounts - and choice of profile.

Do I have a Limited account?

This account owner just setup a new Blogger / Google account - and wants to avoid the confusion of Google+ - but sees his only alternate choice involving creation of a "Limited" account.

A Blogger account and profile is only "limited", in that it does not waste your time and resources serving Google+ to you.

Google+ is an exciting product - if you want it.

Google+ is an exciting product - offering a combination of community building, feeds, and multimedia sharing, in one package. You can spend hours, interacting with people, worldwide. If that's what you want.

Blogger is fine, for many people.

If you don't want Google+, a Blogger account, with a Blogger profile, will suit you, just fine.

Many people will be quite happy with a Blogger profile.



Google wants people excited by Google+ - but Blogger is exciting too.

Google wants to emphasise the potential of Google+ - so they describe a Blogger Profile as "Limited".

The limits may be only in your mind.

Google+ has advantages, to be sure - but it's not the end of all. Blogger accounts, and Blogger profiles, still offer exciting possibilities. A Blogger blog lets you reach - and interact with - people all over the world.

You can choose either profile - just choose, carefully.

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Google "My account" lets you setup a new #Blogger / Google account - and gives you a choice of a Google+ profile, or a "Limited" Blogger profile. This confuses some new Blogger blog owners, who don't want Google+ - and fear that they will have to settle for a Limited account.

In reality, a Blogger account with a Blogger profile will be exciting - and useful - for many new Blogger blog owners.

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Dear Followers Of This Blog ...

If you did not use a Blogger / Google account when you Followed this blog, years ago, you are probably not Following now.

During the past month or so, this blog has gone from 5,300 to 4,800 Followers. Owners of other blogs have reported similar reductions.

Look at the Reading List, in the Blogger dashboard - if you use Blogger. Is this blog listed? If so, you are Following this blog, using a Blogger account. If not, you may want to add this blog to your Reading List.

As part of a project to make Blogger Followers (aka "Google Friend Connect") more reliable and stable, Blogger Engineers are rewriting Followers to only work with Blogger / Google accounts.

Originally, Blogger Followers was part of a web of community building features.

In the past, Blogger Followers was part of a web based community composed of half a dozen account hosts - and another half a dozen profile hosts - and the login and profile hosts complements were not the same.

The Followers gadget, for many years, had well known problems.

"Were sorry ...

This gadget is configured incorrectly."

Everyone who uses Followers, on their blogs, has surely seen this notice.



This blog showed the above message, during most of 2015, for many would be Followers. Other blog owners had similar complaints, during the past several years.

One of the odder peccadilloes of Following started with someone who would, for one reason or another, decide to Follow a blog using an OpenID account or profile, then later login to Blogger and look in their Reading List for the new newsfeed subscription. Surprise! No subscription!!

Unfortunately, people Following using the web were shortchanged. One of the downsides of Following (seldom discussed) was that only Followers using Blogger / Google accounts would have a newsfeed subscription added to their Reading List.

People Following without Google accounts did not get newsfeed subscriptions.

Followers using OpenID only got their photo icon in the Followers facepile. How would OpenID Followers get a Reading List subscription? Reading List subscriptions require Blogger / Google accounts.

Followers is being rewritten - and non Google accounts are not supported.

Starting last month, Blogger Engineers have been eliminating Followers who use OpenID accounts, and / or who use OpenID hosted profiles.

January 27 - 4,860 Followers.

December 18 - 5,343 Followers.



This causes a drop in Follower count, on a lot of blogs - and yes, it's painful to watch the numbers drop. But what they are removing is people who only get their photo icon on the blog (temporarily) - the ones being removed don't read the newsfeed in Reading List, because they don't use Reading List.

Blogger is doing this for a practical reason - Followers code needs to be simplified, so it can be made more reliable. It's similar to support policy for every brand and version of browser. Blogger can't support every version of every browser, nor can they support every type of login to Followers, reliably.

If we are going to use the Followers gadget, it needs to be reliable.

The Followers gadget, on this blog, was broken - for many months, last year. If we're going to use Followers, it needs to be reliable.

If you look in your Reading List and find this blog listed, you are Following this blog using a Blogger account - since the Reading List subscription is one benefit of Following. If you don't find this blog listed, you may subscribe, using Reading List - or Follow, using "Follow Me". Just use a Blogger / Google account, when you Follow.

I welcome you, either way. Now that this blog is The ONLY Blogger Status, I plan to continue bringing you the best discussions of Blogger features and problems.

If you are Following my Google+ stream, this may not affect you.

Keeping all of this in proper perspective, some of you may be Following this blog in your Google+ stream, using Google Followers. You will be using a Google account (you cannot use Google+ without a Google account) - and you will not have a Reading List entry (Google+ does not use Reading List).

Others may be Following my Google+ Collection, RBS. Google+ Collections are more similar to blogs.

Blogger Followers ("Follow Me"), above Google+ Followers ("+Follow Me").



Blogger Followers, and Google+ Followers, are simply two different products - and both are displayed on this blog. And both help different people to find your blog.

And that's why we add the gadgets, to our blogs. And now, why we add notices, to our blogs.

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Recovering And Protecting Your GMail Account

Blogger blog owners may have productive action, when their Blogger accounts are successfully hacked through an attack on their GMail accounts.

GMail account owners can get detailed instructions on recovering a successfully hacked account, and on preventing future hacking attacks from being successful. Some of the instructions are specific to GMail use - but overall, Blogger account owners will benefit from their use.

To benefit from the GMail instructions, one should consider the differences between Blogger, email, and Google accounts.

GMail provides instructions for recovering hacked / stolen GMail accounts.

Gmail Account Recovery: Gmail Account Recovery and Security provides complete and detailed instructions for recovering a hacked and stolen GMail email account.

The Recovery instructions include specific mentions of Disabled / Suspended accounts, successfully Stolen accounts, and accounts locked or deleted because of Underage owners.

Accompanying the recovery advice is Gmail help and information: How NOT To Get Hacked. These are instructions for preventing a recurrence of a reported problem. This includes discussion of using a strong and secure password, identifying hacking techniques that involve the account owner, and preventing attacks which are conducted using the computer or network in use by the account owner.

Prevention instructions are similarly focused on GMail account security.

The Prevention instructions, many which are common sense issues to any IT professional or security expert, are specifically written to apply to GMail account owners. There may be additional issues which apply in general, to Blogger accounts - and specifically, to Blogger accounts which are based on non GMail email accounts.

There are a few differences between Blogger blog ownership and GMail account ownership, which will cause issues that cannot be easily resolved by Blogger Support, or by GMail Support, to the satisfaction of the (former) blog owner.

GMail accounts, unlike Blogger accounts, do not contain transferrable assets.

GMail accounts are, by nature, single owner - and ownership of a GMail account is never transferred. In contrast, Blogger blogs can be under team ownership - and ownership can be transferred.

• Intentional team blog ownership. Team blog ownership can cause problems with loss of blog control, when all known blog administrators (accidentally or intentionally) remove themselves as administrators, leaving an unknown administrator.
• Intentional transfer of control. A blog owner may assign administrator status to another person, voluntarily - then later regret his decision.
• Un intentional transfer of control. A blog owner may assign administrator status to another person, voluntarily - and the other person may then remove the former owner administrator status.
• Ownership theft after account hacking. A hacker, having temporarily gained control of a Blogger account, may transfer ownership of a blog to another Blogger account.

All of these scenarios are regarded as simple transfer of blog ownership, by Blogger Support.

Though maybe not preferred by the (former) blog owner, the blog in question will now be under control of another person. It's possible that some of these scenarios are considered by Google Security, when reviewing Blogger / Google accounts after hacking activity is detected.

Blogger accounts based on non GMail email have typical third party issues.

Blogger accounts, based on non GMail email addresses, will be subject to the typical uncertainty which accompanies any third party service in Blogger. Some details may be involve the email provider, while others will involve Blogger - and arbitrating between the two will be the responsibility of the Blogger account owner.

Owners of Blogger accounts which are based on non GMail email addresses will need to contact the providers of the actual email service, for resolution of some of these issues.

In general though, the GMail Account Loss Prevention and Recovery instructions provide good advice, for any Blogger account owner.

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Problems Being Observed, In Blogs Now Using Google+ Comments

A few blog owners, eagerly opting to use the latest Blogger enhancement, Google+ Comments, are seeing some changes which they did not anticipate.

Even after checking all of the settings, some blogs, with Google+ Comments enabled, may not show the comment form - or may show the form, but comments may not be visible. Besides the visibility of the form, there are other changes which some blog owners don't appreciate.

In many cases, Google+ Comments, like other new features, require an updated post template. This will be seen in blogs with customised post templates, most frequently - although newer, less customised blogs also may need a post template reset.

After getting Google+ Comments working in general, some blog owners find other unexpected changes.

There will be changes seen by the blog owner.

• Almost the entire "Comments" section, in the dashboard Settings - "Posts and comments" wizard, will disappear - though "Comment Location" will remain - and will default to "Embedded". None of these settings are relevant in Google+ Comments. On some blogs, there may be no "Comments" dashboard menu entry at all.
• There are no controls for moderation, or for notification, of comments.
• There is no ability to moderate comments, from the dashboard. Moderation is done under each post, one post at a time.
• As a blog owner, you have no special ability to moderate comments, made against your blog.
• There may be some comments, which you may not be able to moderate - but will publish against your blog.
• If you Block somebody from Following you, that person may still be able to post a Comment on your blog. When you look at the comments, you will only see

  This post is hidden because you have blocked the author.

• The "Export blog" wizard, which used to export both comments and posts, will only export posts.

There will be changes seen, by the blog readers.

• People without Google+ accounts won't be able to make - or view - comments (since comments are Circle dependent).
• Visibility of the comment form, as with all embedded comments, is sensitive to cookie / script filters, on the client computers.
• Comments posted outside Google Comments may not be immediately visible, though the comments remain in existence. Resetting various sections of the template may resolve this, when observed.
• If you change the blog address - with either a simple BlogSpot address change, a non BlogSpot address republishing (aka "custom domain"), or export / import - existing Google+ Comments may not remain visible, with the blog. This may be a similar problem, with URLs subject to Country Code Aliasing.
• With a blog using Google+ Comments, the Comments newsfeed will not be published. Any "Recent Comments" gadgets will be useless.
• The comment count, as displayed in the blog main page display, may show "0 comments" - even with comments actually present, and visible when clicking on "0 comments".
• You may or may not get email notification of comments, when comments are not shared specifically with you - even if you own the blog. Other people, who do not own the blog, may get notifications when you do not.
• It appears that Google+ Comments only work with blogs that are published publicly.

There will be problems seen (not seen) by both blog owners and readers.

• With a blog using Google+ Comments, comments made while the blog was using Blogger Comments won't be visible. They will be present, in the Blogger Comments database - they won't be visible, unfortunately.
• With a blog using Blogger Comments, comments made while the blog was using Google+ Comments won't be visible. Google+ Comments will still be out there, in the streams of the owners and readers - they just won't be visible on the blog.
• If you change a blog between Blogger and Google+ Comments, comments made under the previous host won't be visible, to either the owners, or the readers. Neither the Blogger dashboard, or the blog display, supports multiple comment hosts.

Fortunately, in most cases any prematurely made decisions are reversible. Go to the dashboard Google+ menu entry, and unselect "Use Google+ Comments on this blog". The blog will simply return to native Blogger based Comments. Any comments made under Google+ will not be visible to you, from the blog - but everything else should return to normal.

I've now added a Problem Rollup discussion, in Blogger Help Forum: Feature Suggestions and Feedback, where your opinion is appreciated. Please be objective.

See my test blogs Google+ Comments, Dynamic Template Test and Google+ Comments, Simple Template Test if you wish.

Click here, for instructions to revert back to Blogger based comments. Note that you will lose ability to view all Google+ based comments - though the comments will still exist.

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Blogger And Google+ Continue To Move Ever Closer Together

Today, Blogger announced the most innovative step in integrating Blogger and Google+, since sharing of Blogger posts to Google+.

The December 2011 sharing option lets us publish our blog posts to Google+. Today, Blogger added the ability to do the same - and more - with our blog comments. Like basic Google+ post sharing, Google+ Comments will be shared, and be visible, on a Circle by Circle basis.

The ability to post a comment, against a Blogger blog post shared in Google+, and have the comment publish to the blog will make for interesting comment based conversations.

There will be challenges to this feature, however. One of the most annoying problems with Blogger comments, right now, involves the embedded comment form, and security limitations caused by cookie filtering on many readers computers.

This blog uses a full page comment form, because too many of my readers need to post comments, in spite of the cookie filtering on their computer. Blogger Google+ Commenting requires use of the embedded comment form.

Google+ Comments lets you bring the following conversations together in one place, right under your blog post:

• Comments made on your Blogger blog post
• Comments on the blog post that you’ve shared to Google+
• Shared content on Google+ that links to your blog post

Readers will need a Google+ page or profile to comment on your blog.

Anybody who publishes a blog, and has readers who do not understand the reason for allowing third party cookies, will not want to use an embedded comment form - and won't benefit from Google+ Commenting, either. Until either

• Blogger resolves their "third party cookies" problem, with the embedded comment form.
• All Blogger blog readers resolve their issues with filtering "third party cookies".

Google+ Comments will have a limited audience.

Many blog owners may find a problem, in the moderation process.

Once you enable Google+ Comments, you can moderate comments within the blog post itself.

Owners of large blogs may not enjoy having to check each post, one by one, to moderate comments - so, you let your readers moderate for you.

I check my dashboard Comments menu, several times daily - and see all comments posted to the blog, in one convenient place. Having to look at each post, to moderate comments, won't be as convenient.

A third challenge will come from blog owners who want everybody to be able to comment, on their blogs. Requiring a Google+ account to comment won't be widely accepted by blog owners who have readers who comment either Anonymously, or using an OpenID.

One of the benefits of Google+ Commenting will be a reduction in comment based spam. The increasingly annoying "nice blog" spam - and the accompanying security risks from having it published on our blogs - should be eliminated, from blogs using Google+ Comments.

Google+ Comments is a feature that is needed, on some Blogger blogs - but it needs to remain optional, for some time.

If you're in one of my Circles, and wish to test this new feature, see if you can comment, on my recipes blog, Chuck's Kitchen.

>> Top

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Browser Cache, And Blogs Locked After Hacking

The effects of browser cache, upon our Internet life, are not always understood.

Most of us know, by now, to clear cache and restart the browser, after updating a blog, for consistent testing. Some folks know that blog security changes don't always take complete and immediate effect.

Recently, we're seeing a new effect, reported by owners of Blogger accounts locked, after hacking activity is detected.

I got a message mentioning suspicious account activity, when I logged in to Blogger. I provided my phone number, and I received a code on my phone, that I had to enter before I could then log in. My blog was working fine just after I logged in. A short while later, though, it was gone. Why was my blog deleted, because I unlocked my account?

This blog owner is just slightly confused, about the cause and effect here.

Google robotic processes are constantly monitoring account login activity, and watching for signs of hacking activity, such as brute force password entry.

Hacking Cannot Be Detected, Immediately.

When hacking is detected, the detection may not be immediate - so Google protects us by considering the possibility that the hacking could have been successful, and deletes or locks blogs owned by the account under attack. The blogs in question are taken offline, immediately, when hacking is detected.

When a blog is taken offline, blog content may be found in cache.

If a blog owner has just been working on a blog, as is frequently the case, the blog contents will be cached somewhere between the owner and the Blogger servers. Blogger can take the blogs offline, on their servers - but any cache containing the blogs will remain. If the blog owner is working on a blog while the Blogger account is under attack, what's in cache will remain, visible to the owner, until cache expires.

If a Blogger account is attacked, and the attack is detected, shortly after the owner has viewed a blog, what's in cache will be used, until it expires. The owner won't see the effects of the blog being deleted until the cache expires, and the browser tries to retrieve a fresh copy from the Blogger servers.

As cache expires later, the blog owner sees the blog go offline.

The blog owner sees the blog go offline shortly after he verifies account ownership, and thinks that the verification process caused the blog to go offline. In reality, the blog was taken offline before the owner even knew of "suspicious" account activity.

The blog owner has to wait, while the blogs are examined for hacker changes.

Now, the blog owner can do nothing, except wait until the account and the blogs are examined for signs of tampering. In some cases, no notification of progress will be received - and the owner will see the blog(s) returned to service, sometime later.

How much later the blogs return to service will vary widely, depending upon several details - and this variation, added to the uncertainty caused by cache latency, leads to mystery. And less attentive owners may take the delay as revenge, by Blogger, for their lack of attention to their blog(s).

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Browser Cache, And Confusion About Blogs Locked After Suspected Account Hacking
Browser Cache, And Blogs Locked After Hacking

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Deleted / Locked Blogs Have Several Causes

Many blog owners are occasionally confused, by the effects of various Blogger / Google security processes.

We see the agony, daily, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, from those who only want to login to Blogger and work on their blogs.

The side effects of the security processes are similar - and depending upon various owner specific details, can be easily confused for each other. The possibility of confusion requires careful initial analysis, when we are faced with an angry blog owner.

My blog was deleted, by Blogger. How could they do this? I do not publish spam!

This is a typical problem report, which can reflect any one of the processes, each requiring different action in the forums.

There are multiple Blogger / Google security / TOS enforcement processes, which encourage observance of various Blogger / Google requirements.

Each process may cause a Blogger account and / or blog to be unavailable for public access, at any time.

• DMCA Violation looks for copyright and similar violations.
• Hacking detection looks for automated attacks against our Blogger accounts and blogs.
• Malware detection looks for malicious code installed in our Blogger blogs.
• Porn classification looks for blogs with adult content, and with unacceptable advertisements (aka monetised porn).
• Spam blog classification looks for Blogger blogs which contain spammy material or use spammy techniques.
• Repeated offenses can have gradually increasing severity of action taken.
• Owner deletion or rename may be confused with spam classification.
• Team blog ownership will affect blogs owned in common, by that team.

Each different process has a different effect on the Blogger account and blogs owned - and requires different attention by the blog owners, by the forum helpers, and by Blogger Support and Google Security. Not all blogs will be listed in the "Deleted blogs" dashboard inventory.

DMCA Violation

Accounts and blogs can be deleted, for progressive DMCA violations. The DMCA violation process originated with complaints made by the major entertainment industry content enforcement organisations, citing theft of "intellectual property" which they control.

In the USA, this would involve the "MPAA" (Motion Picture Association of America), and the "RIAA" (Recording Industry Association of America). I have been told that similar content enforcement organisations exist in other countries.

In more recent events, private citizens have been known to use the DMCA Violation complaint process, for miscellaneous copyright violation reporting. DMCA Violations have a formal complaint and appeal process.

Hacking detection

Blogger / Google network monitors are constantly analysing account login activity, and looking for signs of brute force password hacking.

When hacking activity is discovered, the Blogger account - and all blogs owned by the account - are deleted and locked, pending account verification by the owner, and blog integrity checking by Google Security.

The blog owner, after changing the account password, solving a CAPTCHA, and / or verifying account ownership by providing various personal details, is left waiting for the blogs owned by the account to be examined for signs of abuse by the hacker.

Until the blog(s) are returned to online status, they appear in neither the "Deleted blogs" or "Locked blogs" dashboard lists. The owner, even when logged in to the right Blogger account, simply sees the dashboard advice

You are not an author on any blogs.

In this case, neither the blog owner nor the forum helpers can do anything useful, except wait, anxiously - possibly, with no notice provided. The blog being offline may not be immediately observed by the owner - and this may cause more confusion.

Malware detection

Blogger robotic processes are constantly checking the various blogs, looking for malicious blog accessories, components, and scripts. When a blog is subject to "Malware" classification, the blog will appear in one of two dashboard lists, in sequence.

1. Initially, the blog will appear in the "Deleted blogs" list. While the blog is in "Deleted" status, the blog owner will be able to do nothing, except request "Restore".
2. Once the owner has requested "Restore", the blog is undeleted, and placed into the "Locked blogs" list. While the blog is in "Locked" status, all authors can access the blog to remove malware - but the blog remains offline, to all viewers. Once all malware has been removed from the blog, the owner can "Request Unlock Review".

If the blog remains in "Locked" status for over 48 hours, the blog owner may report this in the forums, and may request a manual review. The forum helpers, and online viewers, will generally see the blog displayed as "TOS violation".

This blog is in violation of Blogger Terms of Service and is open to authors only

Adult Content / Porn Detection

Blogger will soon classify and delete blogs with "adult content", which host advertisements to commercial porn sites. Like spam classification, this will probably involve both false negatives and false positives.

Spam detection

Blogger robotic processes are constantly checking the various blogs, looking for signs of spam activity and content. When a blog is subject to "Spam" classification, the blog will be displayed in the "Deleted blogs" dashboard list.

The owner can do nothing, except request "Restore". If the blog remains in "Deleted" status for over 48 hours, the blog owner may report this in the forums, and may request a manual review. The forum helpers, and online viewers, will generally see the blog displayed as "Removed".

Blog has been removed Sorry, the blog at xxxxxxx.blogspot.com has been removed. This address is not available for new blogs.

Repeated Offenses

We have recently noted that repeated TOS Violations, involving DMCA, Malware, Porn, and Spam, are being dealt with in increasing severity.

Owner deletion or rename

Mistakes made by the owner can be confused with Spam detection. When a blog is deleted by the owner, it will appear in the dashboard "Deleted blogs" list for up to 90 days.

During the 90 days, the owner (or a team member, when applicable) may "Restore" the blog. After the 90 days expire, the blog will be removed from "Deleted blogs", and will be unrecoverable. Besides being unrecoverable, no other details have been determined.

If the blog is renamed (published under a different BlogSpot URL), the external symptom may be similar to deletion by the owner.

Blog has been removed Sorry, the blog at myblog.blogspot.com has been removed. This address is not available for new blogs.

In this case, the blog will be listed in the dashboard "My blogs" list, under the right Title. The owner needs to setup a stub blog, pointing the readers to the new URL.

Team Ownership

Any blogs owned by a deleted / locked Blogger account may simply disappear from the dashboards of other team members. If the Blogger account is not restored / unlocked, the blogs owned by that account - including any team owned blogs - may remain deleted - and inaccessible to everybody.

The Confusion Accumulates

Because of anonymous blog ownership, loss of account control, team blog ownership, and use of inactive or non existent email addresses, any account / blog which is deleted or locked for hacking (actively / as a victim), malware, and / or spam may not be easily discovered or recovered by the owner.

And, not all scenarios can be easily diagnosed. Besides the deleted blogs, there are blogs that remain online - but have still disappeared from the dashboard of the owner.

All of these issues cause further confusion and frustration.

These scenarios may appear, to the untrained eye, to be signs of fraudulent, malicious, and / or petty actions by Blogger - and are loudly claimed so by spammers with their own agenda. None of these accusations are true - the above processes simply represent Blogger and Google attempting, in the best possible way, to protect everybody against the various hacking, malware, porn, and spam attacks which are constantly in progress.

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Check Your Template, And Look For Unfamiliar JavaScript Code, Following Odd Blog Behaviour

Recently, we've been seeing some odd problem reports in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, suggesting deviously hijacked blogs.

My blog is requesting me to login, using a user name and password, when I view it.

Given the URL of the window requesting the login, it's a simple matter for us to use the right forensic Internet software, and to locate a relevant snippet of code, frequently installed as part of the blog template.

Sometimes, when we reply to the blog owner with advice to remove a bit of dodgy code, we get a response suggesting disbelief. Our advice

Use the Template Editor, and remove the highlighted code snippet.

may receive a confused or skeptical response.

Where did that bit of code come from? I never installed that!

How did the code in question get installed? Discussion of one possible scenario may require thinking outside the box. Not every unrecognised blog change is being caused by memory loss by the blog owner, after an intentional accessory install or template tweak.

Looking at the subject / theme of some blogs involved in recent problem reports, we're seeing a beginning of a trend, which may indicate a new - and very subtle - blog hijacking technique. We know that Blogger blogs are subjected to brute force password guessing attacks, and we know that Blogger / Google has to consider the possibility that a brute force attack detection is made after the attack was successful.

Current blog security, and defense against blog hijacks, involves detection of hijack attempts, by Google Security. It's possible that some blogs, with some owning Blogger accounts and passwords, are more vulnerable to sophisticated password guess hacking.

When you login to Blogger or Google, you hopefully know the right account name and password, and are generally able to get logged in - after maybe one or two mistakes. You learn, soon enough, that if you have to guess your account name or current password - and you require more than a couple tries - you may have to solve yet another CAPTCHA, or request account unlock, to continue.

The ever unpopular CAPTCHA / locked account comes from Google, detecting a possible brute force attack in progress, and protecting your account and your blogs. A Blogger blog, with its content providing enough clues, combined with a simple account password that is easily guessed, may allow an experienced hacker to login to your account in one or two tries, without being detected by Google attack monitors.

It's alternately possible that some attacks are being conducted by very patient hackers, who are able to use days, and / or thousands of different computers, to conduct a throttled brute force password attack. Again, just attack without providing a detectable pattern.

This may help to explain the mysterious spam blog setups, of last year.

A hacker, able to login to a Blogger account without being detected, could install small changes in a blog template without ever being discovered. The blog owner would never discover subtle template changes, made by an easily satisfied hacker.

Finally, install latent code that does not activate immediately, as we observed during Winter 2009 / 2010, so no blogs show symptoms until the hack is installed on thousands of blogs. If one or two blog owners discover the odd code in their blogs, who would ever suspect their blog being part of a massive cloud of victims?

If you report odd behaviour by your blog, you write to Blogger Help requesting advice, and you are advised to remove a bit of dodgy code from the template - and you do not remember having installed the noted dodgy code - you may want to review your Blogger / Google password, and make the password harder to guess. Better still, start using 2-step verification for logging in to your Blogger / Google account.

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Recovery From Locked Blogger / Google Accounts

Not all blog owners understand the reasons behind the locked Blogger / Google accounts.

Even less understand why recovery of locked accounts, and of the blogs owned by the locked accounts, is not immediate. We see the occasional report, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

I had to change the password on my account - and now my blogs are deleted! Why should I wait another "24 to 48 hours" to get my blogs back?

This blog owner does not understand the possible reasons for the locked account - and the work that goes on after the account is unlocked.

Brute force hacking of our Blogger / Google accounts, by hackers / spammers, who have use of the various botnets in the Internet, is a constant activity. Opposing activity, by the Security teams in Blogger / Google, to not let hackers and spammers take control of our accounts and blogs, is just as constant.

Some of the Security activity requires our patience - and blog owners, having to recover their deleted blogs, are not always patient.

The Security processes, in Blogger / Google hacking prevention, have to work from a worst case scenario, when detecting hacking activity.

Immediate detection of hacking is not always a possibility.

Account hacking cannot always be detected instantly. When hacking is detected, the hacking prevention process has to consider the possibility that the accounts under attack have already been compromised.

When Blogger / Google Security detects possible brute force hacking against an account, they lock the account - and delete the blogs owned by the account.

Alternatively, they quarantine the computers used in the hacking activity. This is where we see the notice of "suspicious account activity" - and possibly the dreaded "403 Forbidden".

Post detection security analysis looks at owner mistakes, and for hacking artifacts.

When we discover a locked account, and request its restore, the security process looks for signs of security weaknesses allowed by the account owners - or possibly added by the (temporarily) successful hacker. In some cases, the owner may be required to change the account password, and receive instruction on using a more secure ("strong") password.

Ongoing efforts by Blogger / Google, to make the account recovery easier for the blog owners to endure, may cause mystery about blogs missing from the dashboard, without obvious recovery options.

After the account is restored, all blogs must be carefully checked.

After the Blogger / Google account is restored, the integrity of the blogs owned by the account must be verified.

• The blog content must be examined for spammy content added.
• The blog Permissions list must be checked, for backdoor accounts added.
• The Mail-to-Blogger settings must be considered as a possible backdoor.

These are simply examples of what must be done, to ensure that our blogs were not compromised, even temporarily, by the hacking just detected. After you get your account back, it's not a bad idea for you to verify this, on your own. If you just got your blog back, after resetting your Blogger account password and / or verifying your phone number, check your template carefully, looking for references to unfamiliar JavaScript code, hosted outside Google address space.

Account / blog verification will take time.

The process of account and blog integrity verification will require an unpredictable time period - and needs to be done with the blogs inaccessible to anybody but the Blogger / Google security processes. The blog being offline may not be immediately observed by the owner - and this may cause more confusion.

Blogger Support is aware that nobody wants to deal with the stress of having a locked or deleted blog - especially after they have gone through the process of verifying their account. They are also well aware of the frustration that is present when someone reports

Somebody is publishing spam on my blog - and I can't access the dashboard to remove the spam!

Locking the owned blogs, after hacking activity is detected, complements the ongoing policy of not disclosing the account names, in helping to keep our blogs under our control.

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http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/2013/01/confusion-over-recovery-from-locked.html
Confusion Over Recovery From Locked Blogger / Google Accounts

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