How to delete Klout.com access from your Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn Accounts.
Before the new year, it’s actually a perfect time to review access permissions that you granted to websites and applications on Facebook and Twitter, and while we’re there, it’s a perfect time to dump Klout.
What’s Klout?
It’s a silly tool to measure your social media influence, but really it’s a great way for a company to collect information on people who may or may not be influencers so that the company can do some direct marketing. They have over $10MM in VC money, and currently they have zero real value except for bragging rights. I love data, and I love metrics, but when they claim my third top category of specialization is Tuna, then they certainly are overestimating my consumption of Sushi or underestimating my value in other fields. Perhaps at some point they will be able to monetize directly by providing qualified experts in certain fields for journalists who need a quote for a news story or a business consultant for a company who needs to work on some randomly obscure topic, but right now I’d prefer to keep my information private from them.
You gave Klout access, go back to revoke it
First go to Klout directly. Log into their site and authenticate via either Twitter or Facebook. Once there you should be able to edit your profile and get into your Networks settings
http://klout.com/#/edit-settings/networks
Once here, wipe out access to anything you previously had authorized. As a note: This was the only place I found to remove LinkedIn application access. There was nothing on LinkedIn that provided a way to remove applications, only ways to add more of them.
So you’ve removed access from the Klout.com main page. Now what? Well it turns out that killing things here doesn’t necessarily wipe out the account authorization that you gave to Klout. You need to go to each site and wipe out access manually.
Head to Twitter and Wipe out Klout from there
Log into Twitter’s main page and then head over the application settings section
https://twitter.com/settings/applications
find Klout.com
Click Revoke Access.
While you’re in there, look through the list and wipe out anything else that is unnecessary or looks suspicious. When twitter first started many external sites that hacked accounts were using passwords provided by a user directly. Now twitter posts can be done for a user via prior application authorization. I don’t mind linking access to some applications, but generally this list should be shorter than longer so you better control your communication and limit the risk of you spamming your friends.
Head to Facebook and Wipe out Klout from there
Log into Facebook
Go to privacy settings
Find Apps and Websites, click “Edit Settings”
This should take you to
https://www.facebook.com/settings/?tab=applications
You will see list of apps. You can now find Klout. If you click on “edit” you can see what permissions it currently has, and you can click “Remove App” or just click on the “X” and confirm your selection to remove rights.
Here, it would also be good to delete all accesses that you find unfamiliar. Some apps may be for mobile phone access, but most will be for games, contests and brands that you might have granted access for earlier. If you are currently inactive in a game or no longer in the running for a contest, then you might as well prune those accesses out of your account. If you want to use the app again in the future, you can just as easily reauthorize it.
How about other sites?
Well these plus Google+, to which I never provided Klout access, are the ones that are most active for me. You’ll need to go to each site individually and check to see if they still have access to read through your entire history and/or post as you. Third-party authentication is a great tool, but given the ease where we grant it to other companies, it’s a tool we should control more tightly. Happy Holidays and I hope your Social Media Accounts are nice and clean.
KLOUT Followup and Ocean Marketing (Update 1/2/2012)
So I wiped out permissions just a few days ago, and I’ve dropped from a Klout score of 54 to now 36 (up one from the 35 I got when I stripped everything). They are still using twitter authentication or a cookie to track me (so I need to wipe those as-well I guess). Of course the reason I see this is that I was curious about the absolutely FAIL’ed PR company Ocean Marketing which was responsible for the now case study in the worst customer service experience of all time for a gaming accessory company Well after that implosion, they went UP to 31 from 20! Somehow that seems wrong. :)
One last thing
Now that all the permissions are deleted, unfortunately the Klout account still exists. You need to go into their profile editor and request manually that the account be deleted. I did that, and now HEUGE should not be showing up in their system as a Klout account being tracked.
