Which old apps still have a key to your Google, Apple, or Microsoft account — and how do you take it back?

Apps you signed into once with Google, Apple, or Microsoft can keep account access for years. Here is how to review the list on each account and remove the ones you no longer need.

You tap “Sign in with Google” on a coupon app one time in 2022, forget all about it — but it never forgets you. Short answer: Apps and websites you signed into with Google, Apple, or Microsoft can keep their connection to your account long after you stop using them. October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, which makes it the perfect time to review those connections and remove the ones you no longer need.

Picture each linked app as a spare key to your account. If that company is ever breached or sold, whatever that key can reach becomes part of your problem too — and the pile of spare keys only grows if you never check it. Taking a key back is calm and reversible, not dramatic: you can always sign in again later if you change your mind.1.

Google: Open your Google Account, go to Security, and find your connections to third-party apps and services. Review each entry and remove access for anything you do not recognize or no longer use.2. Apple: Open Settings, tap your name, then “Sign in with Apple,” and delete the apps you no longer use.3.

Microsoft: Sign in to your Microsoft account, open the privacy section’s apps and services page, and remove permissions for apps you do not need.4. Do the two-minute extra. On each account, confirm the recovery email and phone number are still yours — that is how you get back in if anything ever goes wrong.5.

Know what this is not. This is account-level access, which is different from phone app permissions like camera, microphone, and location. Both are worth reviewing, but they live in different places.Pro tip: Do not revoke an app you still sign in with every day until you have another way into it — a password or an email login — or you could lock yourself out of your own account.Ad’s take: I ran this cleanup myself and found apps I barely remember touching.

Ten quiet minutes and fewer spare keys floating around — that is my kind of security win.