MyPermissions: A Great Tool to Help You Protect Your Privacy

You can do lots of interesting things when you give social media tools permission to connect with each other and with other third-party apps. But beware, in doing this you also giving up your privacy.

I think it is safe to say that many of you don’t put much thought into clicking “Yes” when those little permission pop-up messages appear on your screens during an app installation (usually at the end when the app is already installed or starting up for the fist time). And further, I’m sure most of you don’t fully realize how many permissions you have granted or how much privacy you have given up in doing so.

When was the last time you reviewed the permissions you have granted in the various social media tools you use? Last month? Last year? Never?

Nothing like the start of a New Year to give us all a friendly nudge on making improvements.

MyPermissions (mypermissions.org) is a great tool that will help you systematically review the permissions you have granted in the various social media tools you use. And the simplicity of MyPermissions is brilliant – it doesn’t require any access to your accounts. It’s basically a collection of bookmarks that directly link you to the permissions pages for Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, LinkedIn, Dropbox, Instagram, and Flickr. If you are logged into one of these sites, clicking on the relevant link on the MyPermissions homepage will take you right to the permissions page for that site.

I encourage you to take the time to review the permissions you have given in the various social media tools you use. I think many of you will be surprised at the permissions you have granted. Revoke the ones you don’t think are necessary or appropriate.

And don’t wait until January 2013 to revisit your permissions again. Put a reminder on your to do list or calendar; to review your permissions once a quarter, every few months or even monthly – remember that checking your permissions helps protect you privacy.

A hat-tip to LifeHacker for this tip on My Permissions.