How to Remove Third-Party App and User Access from Google Account?

Google has single sign on process to use one email address for accessing all their products. You can use your Gmail id for accessing Google Docs, AdSense, Analytics, YouTube and many other Google products. Though this is useful, you need to be careful when providing permissions to others for using account details or allowing access to one of the products in your account. If you have wrongly authorized someone to access your account or a property in your account, here is how you can check and remove them from your Google account.

Access and Authorization to Google Account

Since Google account is widely used and secure, it is common to provide third-party app access. There are few ways you can authorize a third-party app or user to access your Google account.

• Authorizing apps – this is the most common way like login to Twitter or any other website/app using your Google account.
• Manually adding a user – this is another way of providing access to one of the products. For example, you can add a user in your Google Analytics account for sharing analytics data.

In both ways, you need to confirm the type of permission you are granting to a third-party app or user.  

Developer Access and User Permissions

Generally, when you want to login through Google account or connect an app, you will have to provide one of the following permissions:

• View – the app can get basic details like your email, profile photo and name.
• Write – app can modify data from your account.
• Manage – providing complete access for managing your Google account.

However, the type of permissions are completely different when you are adding a new user for accessing specific product. The user role changes based on the product and for Google Analytics you have – admin, editor, analyst, viewer and none roles. In this case, you need to manually add another Google account email and choose the role for granting access.

Removing Third-Party App Access from Google Account

If you have provided temporary access to a third-party app, it is necessary to remove the access after finishing the task. Likewise, you may also no longer needed the service or person to access your account. Fortunately, Google keeps all third-party access details in your account. Anytime you can check and remove their access to stop them from collecting your data.

• Login to your Google account and navigate to “Security” section.
• Scroll down to find the section that shows “Third-party apps with account access”. Here, you can find the list of apps that have access to your account. Under each app, you can see the name of product the app is accessing.

• Click on “Manage third-party access” link. Here, you will find the list of third-party apps having access to your Google products along with the apps you have authorized logging in using Google account.
• Select a third-party app from the list that you want to remove the access.

• Now, you can find the complete details of data collected by the app along with app URL and access provided date. Below is an example of SiteKit plugin that access basic and additional Google account data from AdSense account. As you can see the plugin can also view and manage complete Search Console properties under the Google account.

• Similarly, you can find the details for each app that you have used for login through Google account. Below is the Twitter app access details showing it only collects basic account information.  

• Click on “Remove Access” button and confirm the pop-up by clicking “OK” option.

This will remove the app access and the app developer will not be able to collect any further details from your account.

Deleting Third-Party Users from a Product

As mentioned, providing user access to Analytics, AdSense or similar Google product data is different than allowing login access for apps. Here, you need the Google email address of third-party user to add in your account and assign proper role. In this case, you need to manage the access by logging into your specific product account. Here, we will explain with Google Analytics and you can follow similar process for other Google products.

• Login to your Google Analytics account and go to “Admin” section.
• Select “Access Management” option. You can choose this under account level or for the property (website or app) level.
• You will see the list of users having access with the role name.
• Select the user’s email address and click “Remove” option to delete the access.

Note: Besides user access, you can also manage third-party revenue sharing sites from your AdSense account. This helps to view how much revenue you are sharing with them and allow or stop them using your sites.

Points to Note

As you can see, it is easy to remove the third-party app access from your Google account. Similarly, you can also delete a user from Analytics or other product’s account to revoke the access. However, remember the following points when dealing with third-party access:

• Data already downloaded by third-party developer or user can’t be deleted. Removing the access will only prevent third-party to access your account or product in future.
• After disconnecting your Google account, you will not be able to login to the app or use the service. You have to reauthorize the access again or find an alternate way to login.
• If you find an app is maliciously collecting data or spamming your inbox, you can report to Google using “Report this app” link available under “Apps with access to your account” section.
• We recommend enabling two step verification and “Enhanced sage browsing” option in your account to protect you from malicious websites.