App of the Week: MyPermissions – Find (and Revoke) Apps With Access to Your Personal Information

Remember the last time you granted permission to a third party app? An app that has access to your personal information? Like giving Twitter access to an analytics tool, or Facebook, to a game or birthday calendar? Me either. Thing is, your privacy is potentially compromised every time you click “yes.”
Of course, some apps are useful, and we’re certainly not going to stop the practice of granting access to some apps, but check out MyPermissions which provides a dashboard with links to permission pages, often deeply hidden away and not easy to find, or simply forgotten.
MyPermissions automatically scans your apps permissions – Facebook, Twitter, Google, Yahoo, LinkedIn, Dropbox, Instagram, Flickr, and other applications – cleans your permissions in one click, and alerts you when apps gain access to your private info.
You can also install the browser extension which is bound to the same security restrictions as other extensions. Since it doesn’t ask for your account credentials, the extension scans sites that you’re currently logged into to obtain a list of app permissions.

The iOS app does the same as the MyPermissions.org website but also allows you to set a reminder to check your permissions.
I lied about Facebook. I never grant access to third party apps on Facebook. It’s just not necessary, and the privacy and security risks outweigh the slim benefits. Whether you use MyPermissions app or not, be wary of granting permissions to apps that access your personal information.
Available: iPhone
Cost: Free
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