Some products are built on top of larger services like Facebook, Gmail, or Dropbox. Whenever we add a new “integration” to an existing account, we give permission for the added service to read our information, track usage, or post on our behalf.
Whether you want to streamline your email inbox, challenge friends in a social game, or pull Facebook photos into a new profile, integrations can be incredibly useful. But they last forever, which means most of us have a handful of forgotten services that still access our accounts.
In addition to services we forgot are the ones we never noticed in the first place. Many services request excessive access during authentication. Famously, the initial rollout of Pokémon GO required users to hand over full access to their Google accounts; this included the right to access private photos or documents, send email as the user, or look at previous Maps navigation history. Creepy.
The problem with integrations like this is that it’s not always obvious what you’re handing over to companies when you authenticate.
Log on to the dashboard of your commonly used accounts and delete any integrations that you no-longer require. Also, check which permissions you’ve granted and modify any services that overstep reasonable boundaries.
Below are direct links for a few popular services. Try to check all accounts that you’ve authenticated third-party apps with, even if they’re not listed below.