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Stolen Blogs Can Not, Generally, Be Returned

Whether you give up your blog willingly, have your blog stolen from you, or accidentally enable your blog to be stolen - once your blog is in someone else's control, Blogger cannot, legally, help you.

We see the naivete, periodically, in Blogger Help Forum: Something Is Broken.
I made my friend an administrator of my blog, and he changed me to an author. Can Blogger restore my ownership?
And the short answer, too frequently given, is denial.
No, Blogger cannot help you.

Blogs stolen, supposedly from their rightful owner, can generally not be returned by Blogger.

There are various ways to lose control of a blog.


In any case, once control passes to another person, it's unlikely that Blogger can, unilaterally, restore ownership.

Blog thieves are very persuasive - and masquerade as theft victims.

One problem here is that too many would be blog thieves start their tales with just these claims. Long ago, Blogger Support would, obediently, "restore" ownership, when requested - and we would later see the angry forum report.

How did this other person get control of my blog?

Blogger Support would research the second "theft" report - and realise, too late, that they had previously enabled the theft.

Blog owners enable some thefts, with security mistakes and requests.

Also, if you neglect to remember your account name or password, please don't just setup a new account, then suggest that Blogger transfer control of the blog, to the new account. This suggestion, also, has been used to make Blogger an unwitting accomplice in too many thefts.

Blog owners must assume some responsibility for problems.

The bottom line here is that you have to accept full responsibility, for retaining control of your Blogger account and blogs.

Even if your friends account is hacked, then used to attack yours, don't expect assistance from Blogger / Google. And please understand that blog security review won't happen, immediately.

Comments

Legacy said…
Agreed that Blogger should not be responsible for mitigating ownership disputes, and that bloggers bear responsibility for the security of their blogs.

However, there are times (such as with a team blog) where practical considerations call for adding administrators, and while due diligence is needed before doing so, stuff happens.

One solution might be for Blogger to add another permission level - Owner (similar to what exists in Google Groups and G+ communities) - which would have exclusive authority to add or remove Administrators, without the risk that one of them will hijack the blog.

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