Klout is an online service that purports to rank your influence in social media, based on your activity on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social media sites.
It has the germ of a good idea. I check in occasionally because the results are occasionally interesting and sometimes outright hilarious. In the latter category: Klout says, and many of my friends agree, that I am an expert on Typos.
So today, when I signed in after receiving a weekly summary email from Klout, I got a pop-up window asking me to connect with my Facebook credentials. Fair enough—if it’s going to assign me a score based on my Facebook activity, it needs to see what I’ve been doing, right?
But this is what I got instead:
Yes, Klout had gone through my Facebook address book, found 50 names that didn’t appear to already have Klout accounts, and offered to send a “Klout request” on my behalf. I clicked Cancel.
It offered to do the same thing yesterday, and I clicked Cancel then too.
At least they asked, and to their credit it was clear exactly what they wanted to do.
I hate this crap. I am annoyed when one of my Facebook friends spams me with requests like this. I would be horribly embarrassed if something like ever went out under my name.
So, Klout, please tell me you understand that this is really stupid behavior and you won’t do it again.
Until you do, your Klout score has dropped to 0 for me.
PS: Yes, I know about Klouchebag.com.
Ed Bott (@ wordpress.com) 
I stopped using Klout within a hour of finding it. Not a very good service IMHO.
Using Facebook is a constant battle against this sort of thing. Between tracking everything you read, spamming Spotify on everyone, posting without your permission when you read an article and so on, it rides the line of being more of a hassle than it’s worth. Facebook has already turned into a read-only service for me, and even then I have to watch it like a hawk.
Well stated!