Facebook and Twitter are both great social networks and I use them a lot to say in touch with friends and family. I also use applications that require a connection with Facebook or Twitter. For instance, Klout, Farmville and Foursquare. Sometimes I also connect with an app I use just for one time. Because I want to try it, or it’s funny, or I use it not any more, or I can win a prize. Like the KLM world deal campaign.

But when you stop using that third-party app. The connection between that app and Facebook or Twitter remains intact. So those third parties can still access your account. And that could be dangerous. If, for some reason, they turn evil, they can use your data for some nasty things or sell it to other companies. To make sure that the third-party will not use my Facebook or Twitter account, you have to revoke the access for that app. I’ll explain short how you can revoke access to Twitter and Facebook applications.

Facebook

Log in at Facebook.com and click in the upper-right corner on ‘Account’. Then you click on ‘Privacy Settings’. Now click on ‘Edit your settings’ under ‘Apps and Websites’ and then on ‘Edit Settings’ right of ‘Apps you use’.

Now you see a list of app the apps that are connected with you Facebook account. If you see an app you don’t recognize or don’t use any more than you click on the little X on the right. You’ll see a pop-up. Just click on ‘Remove’ and the app will be removed. That’s it!

I also recommend you to take a look in other privacy settings. You probably don’t want to share everything with everybody.

Twitter

The first step is the same as that of Facebook. So log in on Twitter.com and click on your username in the upper-right corner of your screen. Next step is to click on ‘Settings’ and then on ‘Connections. Now you see a list of apps that are connected to your Twitter account. If you see an app you don’t use any more than you click on ‘Revoke Access’.

LinkedIn

I also wrote an article about how to revoke access to LinkedIn apps. Nowadays there are already a lot of apps that you can connect with you LinkedIn profile.