One Spurious Technique For Publishing Your Blog Anonymously

Some blog owners wish to publish their blog anonymously.

One of the most obvious ways to achieve anonymity - and one of the least useful - is to not publish your name, in your blog posts.

Edit the "Blog Posts" gadget, in the dashboard Layout wizard, and de select "Posted By".

This solution will immediately remove your name from any posts published by you - as long as a dynamic template is not involved.

The dynamic templates do not reference the "Blog Posts" selections. This will be a problem, for achieving anonymity.

Any blog, at the option of the reader, may be viewed, in dynamic mode. No blog, even with the "Posted By" option un checked, will be anonymous.

This is the URL of this blog.

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/

This is the URL of this blog, using a dynamic template.

http://blogging.nitecruzr.net/view

You - or any reader - can do the same with your blog. This will be a problem, if you use the "Posted By" selection in "Blog Posts", to make your posts anonymous.

Now, checkout my anonymity test blog - in non dynamic view.

http://nitecruzr-test-anonymity.blogspot.com/

And checkout the first post, in dynamic view.

http://nitecruzr-test-anonymity.blogspot.com/view

D'Ohh!

If you truly want to publish your blog anonymously, there are several issues which you need to consider - all of them necessary. The "Posted By" option is not part of these issues - since it has no effect on anonymity.

Having considered all of the issues required to achieve anonymity, consider the issues where true anonymity can be a problem. Blogger supports our right to publish our blogs, anonymously - and will not break our right to anonymity.

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Repeated DMCA Violations Are Punished Gradually

Some blog owners don't understand the serious nature of DMCA Violations in Blogger blogs - and how offenses are handled, by Google.

We've seen several reports, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken, from blog owners who appear to be unclear about the consequences of repeated DMCA Violations.

I got email from Blogger, about my Blogger account.

We'd like to inform you that we've received another complaint regarding a blog that you administer. Upon review of your account, we've noted that you've repeatedly violated the Terms of Service: http://www.blogger.com/go/terms. Given that we've provided you with several warnings of these violations and advised you of our policy towards repeat infringers, we've been forced to disable your Blogger service.

How do I get my blog restored?

This example appears to represent the final step, in a 3 step policy.

It appears that Google takes a 3 step approach, towards DMCA violations. This is similar to the TOS Violations punishment process.

1. Deletion of offending posts.
2. Deletion of offending blogs.
3. Deletion of offending Blogger account (and blogs).

We've noted the initial step - deletion of offending posts, before. Specific blog posts, which are identified as DMCA Violations, are saved as Draft content. This allows the blog owner to correct the offense, and re publish a corrected post, without losing the content.

If the owner chooses to ignore the initial DMCA Violation, and simply re publishes an offending post - or if the owner publishes multiple offending posts, the blog is deleted. The owner is free to publish another blog, at his convenience - but the offending blog is not recoverable.

If the owner publishes a new blog, containing the same offending material - or if the owner publishes multiple offending blogs, the Blogger account (and blogs) is deleted.

As with all email delivered warnings, there will be cases when the owner may not receive warnings in a timely fashion. Unfortunately, the owner is responsible, even so, when he offends, repeatedly.

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Anonymous Blog Ownership, And Hacked Account Detection

This week, we're seeing a number of reports from blog owners with Blogger accounts recently hacked.

I was asked to change my password, because of suspicious activity. Having done that, my blogs are now deleted!

With hacked Blogger / Google accounts, causing deleted blogs, there's not a lot of advice that we can provide.

As you just discovered, the account is recovered almost immediately. Blog recovery, unfortunately, takes longer - sometimes, 1 to 2 days. You'll have to wait, patiently, until your blogs are verified by Google Security staff.

We're also seeing the normal amount of reports of blogs deleted by Blogger, when detected for malware, porn, or spam. In some cases, blog review ends with the conclusion that the blog was not, in fact, deleted for a TOS violation. In these cases, the blog won't be restored by Blogger Support.

In some cases, blog review - which starts with a claim of spurious classification for malware, porn, or spam hosting - ends with advice to have the owning Blogger / Google account recovered.

The blog owner has to wait until the review process is complete, to learn where he should have started, days ago. As I've observed a few times in the past, anonymity - whether intention or accidental - can cause problems with blog ownership. If your Blogger / Google account is locked, but you don't get the required notification, you can waste valuable time with the blog offline.

Whether you intentionally anonymise yourself - or accidentally create a second (or third) Blogger account, you may not get essential email from Google, advising you to recover your account. When that happens, your blog will stay offline until it can be reviewed - and review starts only after you recover the account that was locked.

Now, you're going to have to open every possible email account, and carefully look for the overlooked email. If you never find the missing email message, you're going to have to login to Blogger, using every possible email address that you may have ever used, until you hit the locked Blogger account.

When you do identify the locked account, you'll get the advice to change your password, solve a CAPTCHA, and / or answer a number of secret questions, to prove that you are the account owner. Or, if you're lucky, you can await a phone call (digital or voice) with a special code, to unlock your account. Either way, you'll be unlocking the account while under stress, with the blog offline.

And after you get the account unlocked, you'll still have to wait until the blog(s) can be verified.

If you try to blame Google, for this disaster

Why was my blog deleted? I did not spam!

you will simply be wasting your time. This is yet one more story that starts with gratuitous and uncontrolled creation of multiple Blogger accounts and email addresses.

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If You Cannot Prove Ownership Of Your Blogger Account, Your Next Step May Involve Court Action

We've explored the issues of Blogger account and blog recovery policy, repeatedly. We've mentioned the business concerns, the personal support issues, and even the strategic hacking possibilities. Even so, we continue to see evidence of blog owners who just don't understand the message, posting in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.

I started a blog under an alias, to be able to post anonymously, and can't remember the login details or the e-mail recovery. How can I regain access to my blog?

Last year, Blogger Support offered the "final" word about account recovery assistance, in the forum.

Due to the sensitive nature of these issues, we won't be able to troubleshoot your issue in this public forum.

Even giving that advice, some blog owners still insist that Google is not cooperating, in refusing to restore access to Blogger accounts and blogs, to people who cannot prove their right to ownership.

The policy on ownership recovery is quite simple. Anybody requiring recovery has to prove their right to a given Blogger account or blog, using the tools provided.

Because Google doesn't ask for much personal information when you sign up for an account, we don't have many ways to verify that you own an account.

Blogger / Google provide two automated recovery tools - and that is the limit of their cooperation. Every Blogger blog owner, who actively publishes a blog, and who wants to keep their blog under their control, needs to appreciate this limit - this is how Blogger and Google prevents devious hijacking of our blogs.

For those blog owners who truly need - and deserve - control of their lost blogs, there is one final recourse. Any owner, who cannot use the Blogger / Google automated tools, are entitled to take their concerns outside Google, and have their identity certified by the courts. Start by hiring a lawyer, take the matter to a judge, and get a properly issued court order. Then, serve the court order, properly, to Google.

Let's let the courts assume responsibility of deciding who is a worthy blog owner - and who is potentially a hacker.

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Third Party Gadgets And Recent Malware Detected Blogs

Earlier this week, we noted an increased level of activity in reports about blogs locked as suspected spam hosts, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken. Upon review of the increased volume of spam referrals, with the majority of the cases found to be spurious, Blogger Support provided advice, about a new reason for deleted blogs.

Yesterday, our malware detection system began receiving reports of malicious content on some blogs. While the blog content on many of these blog may be malware-free, 3rd party widgets on these blogs may contain malware.

When a blog is locked for hosting malicious third party gadgets, the blog will be present in the dashboard "Deleted blogs" list - and should be unlocked, on the spot, using the "Restore" option in the list.

The Known Issues advice continues, and describes a planned action.

We’re currently in the process of contacting all blog owners with instructions.

Until Blogger Engineering comes up with an automated contact procedure, owners of blogs which are deleted by Blogger may do well to check their dashboard "Deleted blogs" list, before asking for spam review in the forums.

Owners who find their blog listed, in "Deleted blogs" will be able to immediately restore the blog in question. Having restored the blog, it will be accessible in the "Locked blogs" list - where only the administrators can access it - and remove any possibly malicious third party gadgets, which may have been recently installed. So far, we've seen problems reported with

• Email address collection.
• Third party advertising.
• Traffic redirection
.

All of these are known to trigger malware classification, and cause locked blogs. While the blog is in "Locked blogs", it will remain offline, and inaccessible by readers and search engines.

Once all malicious / unsafe accessories and tweaks have been removed, the owner can submit the blog for unlock review, using the "Request Unlock Review" button in "Locked Blogs". Given a successful review, the blog will be returned to the main "My blogs" list, and restored to service.

Once malicious accessories and tweaks have been removed from the blog in question, it's a good idea to not reinstall them. Repeated detection will lead to Blogger account termination, similar to the penalty for repeated DMCA violations.

There are several reasons why all owners of such blogs may not see their blog listed, in a dashboard list. Owners of these blogs will still be obligated to report their problem in the forums - and to patiently wait while Blogger Support can restore their blogs.

The latter scenario will provide one more example while poorly planned anonymous blog ownership is not a good idea.

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Everybody Won't Get Proper Notification When Their Blog Is Deleted Or Locked

One problem that we're seeing in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken involves blog owners, who recently discovered their blogs deleted or locked, by Blogger - and without any notice received.

The account actions may be required with the blog deleted for a suspected TOS Violation, such as hosting malware, porn, or spam - or locked because of "suspicious activity" on the Blogger account.

Why was my blog deleted? I never got proper notice!

Too many people depend upon email notification - and may not receive proper notification, in all cases.

Blogger provides a dashboard based malware / porn / spam classification notification / recovery process, which may not be available for everybody. Similar to malware / porn / spam classification, there will be issues with DMCA violation notification.

This is also a problem when accounts are locked for "suspicious activity", and when blogs are locked for hosting malicious third party gadgets.

There are several reasons why some blog owners won't get notification of their blogs being deleted or locked, by the various Blogger / Google security processes. Besides notification limitations, nobody should expect to get advance warning of action being taken - as this would simply encourage the intentional spammers to never request review.

Intentional spammers, if permitted, would play 3 Card Monte, endlessly, with their spammy blogs. Both the notification, and advance warning, limitations contribute to confusion about the various Blogger / Google security recovery options.

All email based notifications may not be properly delivered. The owner of any email account, which may not deliver email properly, is still responsible for reading any important email messages.

Too many Blogger blogs are owned by Blogger accounts which are based on inactive or nonexistent email addresses. Owners of these blogs will never see email notification, when they - intentionally or not - make themselves anonymous.

In other cases, some people may get the email notifying them of problems - but their email program may misfile the email, in a folder which they may not check, regularly. In some odd cases, somebody other than the owner may get the email.

In team blog ownerships, any blog owned by the team is subject to action against any team member accounts. Blogs affected will simply disappear from the dashboards of all team members - with no opportunity provided for appeal or review.

Finally, too many blog owners maintain multiple Blogger / Google accounts, and are not completely sure which Blogger account may own a given blog. These owners may not even see the dashboard based "Deleted Blogs" button / link, because they will be logged in to the wrong Blogger account.

Not all of the above scenarios are entirely the fault of the blog owners - but the blog owners are the ones who will have to make the effort to resolve the resulting problems.

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Anonymity, Your BirthDate, And Your New Blogger / Google Account

Not all new Blogger blog owners understand why they are asked for their birthdate, when they setup a Blogger or Google account. Some folks see this as a violation of their right to privacy, and enter a fake birthdate. Some real serious privacy enthusiasts might enter "01/01/01", just to get through the setup process - maybe intending to correct it, later.

Nobody entering "01/01/01", for one's birthdate, suspects that claiming such a birthdate makes them - in 2013 - appear to be 12 years of age. Unfortunately, 12 years is below the minimum age for owning a Blogger blog. Since Blogger / Google tries to protect the young people on the Internet from inadvertently exposing themselves - or their families or friends - to unknown dangers, people who may appear to be of insufficient age are subject to having their Blogger / Google accounts, and Blogger blogs, deleted or locked.

If you entered a fake birthdate some time ago, and now find your account or blog locked or deleted, you need to prove your age to Google - and you should do this promptly. The Google Accounts document Frequently Asked Questions about Google Account and Age Requirements explains how you do this. The process of verifying your age / birthdate is not convenient - and some privacy enthusiasts may claim that it too violates their privacy rights - but it is necessary, to let you correct your birthdate - when you are legitimately of legal age.

Now, you have to hope that you did not, intentionally or mistakenly, also provide a bogus email account as your Blogger / Google account name / recovery email address. The process of identifying yourself as the owner (former, nominally underage) of a given Blogger / Google account is easier to do, when you have access to the email account stated as the account recovery email address.

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