Logging in to other websites using Facebook can be dangerous

Convenience versus security. As much of a pain as it is, you can’t truly have both in the digital world, you can simply balance the scales to meet your requirements and live with it. Using login services like Facebook or Google to access accounts on other websites is certainly convenient, but it means that, should the login service be compromised, the people compromising it now have access to all the accounts that are linked to it. 

When my Facebook account was hacked in March, I didn’t panic. I changed my passwords, and I enabled two-step authentication on Facebook, Twitter, and Google. I knew that once a single account was compromised, it could lead to a domino effect of unauthorized access far beyond a single social network. I was proud of my calm, surgical demeanor. Then I remembered that I use my Facebook, Twitter, and Google accounts to access other websites, apps, and services. I looked at which apps had access to my Twitter account: There are more than 200 (a printout is 24 pages long). Calm surgeon? More like a naive epidemiologist dealing with a potential viral outbreak.