Remove third-party access yo your GMAIL inbox

1. Open up Security Checkup

The primary key to making sure there aren’t any nefarious app developers out there using your Gmail inbox in ways it shouldn’t is a nifty tool Google offers called Security Checkup. It does exactly what any “checkup” does; you can run through a list of ways companies and apps outside of Google are using your account and decide how to act on them on a case-by-case basis.

You can click here to access the Security Checkup page, and you’ll want to make sure that you’re signed in to the appropriate Google account. If you have multiple, you may want to do a checkup for multiple accounts.

You can see which devices you own that might need a passcode lock, events that may have triggered a security warning, and update your verification methods including backup email addresses, your phone number, and more.

2. Remove third-party access

If you scroll down you’ll see a section titled “third-party access”. Google estimates the risk of the apps associated with your account, and tells you how many you have in that category. In my case, I have 5 apps that have “low risk access to your data”. One of those is Boomerang for Gmail.

You can quickly remove access by clicking “Remove Access,” but you can also click the small “i” button to getting a better glimpse of the app and details about the access it has. In this case, Mailbird has access to read, send, delete, and manage my email and it has 1-5 million users.

3. You’re done

And that’s it. Just “Remove Access” to all the Gmail-related apps that you don’t use. If you aren’t sure if you use it, then you probably don’t. And even if you later find out that you did, you can always give the app access again. I personally lean on the side of revoking access if I’m not sure about an app.

You might be familiar with the concept because it’s not unique to Google. On Facebook and Twitter as well, you can find a list of apps that you’ve authorized to use your account and data. You might be surprised by how many apps you’ve mindlessly given your data to, but that’s why we’re doing this — it’s just good practice to make sure that third-parties don’t have access to things they shouldn’t.