Sunday
Nov202011
Why I Quit Klout, Why You Should, Too, And How To Opt Out
Sunday, November 20, 2011 
Why I Quit Klout
When I opted out of Klout this evening, it was only after I did a lot of reading. I had the healthy Klout score of 53, which put me in the top 5-10% of Klout users, and I didn't want to make any premature decisions if it turned out that Klout, indeed, had desirable clout.When I originally thought I might opt out of Klout, it was for a number of reasons, including but not limited to:
- Klout lacks transparency about the fact that they only measure influence based on 4 of the 13 networks presently on offer for connection.
- Privacy issues raise red flags about any organization.
- Readily apparent issues with their algorithm to accurately measure influence remain despite user outcry.
- Their unspoken encouragement to interact with others based on their Klout scores rather than on an honest desire to engage breeds a negative social media culture.
- Despite my misgivings, I found myself becoming increasingly concerned about a fairly arbitrary number.
Why You Should Quit Klout
When you share your information, you are inadvertently handing your friends' information over, too:Klout operates under American privacy law, or rather, the lack of it. If you created a Klout account in the past, you were unable to delete it short of sending legal letters (until November 1st, when they kindly added an "opt out" mechanism). More to the point, Klout analyse your social graph and create accounts for all your contacts without asking them for prior consent. It also appears to use an unwitting user's Twitter or FB credentials to post updates on their Klout scores, prompting the curious-but-ignorant to click on a link to Klout, whereupon they will be offered a chance to log in with their Facebook or Twitter credentials. So it spreads like herpes and it's just as hard to get rid of. Is that all? (Charlie Stross at Charlie's Diary)Klout created public profiles for private Facebook users who did not opt in to the service:
In the days just before Halloween, Ms. McGary got the fright of her life when she checked her Klout profile. Hovering above her score were the faces and names of those over whom she had influence, as calculated by Klout. They included her 13-year-old son, Matthew. (Somini Sengupta at The New York Times)It is important to note that Klout's CEO has issued an apology about their privacy violations:
We will always be vigilant in working with the platforms (Twitter/Facebook/etc), our legal counsel, and the community to do what's right here. We messed up on this one and are deeply sorry. (Joe Fernandez at The Official Klout Blog)The only entity that crowned Klout the standard for influence is Klout:
Who made Klout the arbiter of online influence, aside from Klout itself? I could rank your influence online. (John Scalzi at CNN Money)Klout affects the livelihood of some individuals based on a faulty algorithm:
Marketers, of course, have a huge stake in this rating process. Influence is one of the metrics our clients look for, and our performance and reputation is also scrutinized by potential clients. So yes, Klout, you probably cost me some money this week. (John McTigue at Kuno Creative)Klout's algorithm is not built with the average user in mind:
Based on my experiment, it appears that Klout’s algorithm changes are not focused on improving their social measurement system, but a clueless attempt to prop up larger brands and celebrities anti-social behavior and stifle effective relationship building that leads to ROI for those that do it right. -OR- even worse, tech geeks and scientific formulas that have no real understanding of social media and it’s proper use in business. (Robert M. Caruso at Bundle Post)A very real problem is that there may not be much impetus for Klout to work to create an algorithm that accurately assesses each user:
So, as an advertiser, do I care whether your Klout score is one or two points higher than it should be? Do I care if, out of the 1,000 influencers I want to reach, 100 of them are slightly mismatched? Do I care that I’m considered influential about 50 Cent? Do I care that Klout can be gamed?Klout is affecting our social interactions online in ways that may not actually be beneficial to our personal and professional goals outside Klout's particular standards of influence:
As long as I get scale and reach within my geography, I don’t think I do and I don’t think clients do either. As long as, in aggregate, the 100mm people that Klout indexes are, plus or minus 5%, the right place on the bell curve, I think it’s a worthwhile system to use. (Ed Lee)
We are highly conditionable beings. Klout is conditioning us to care about Klout, and to value ourselves — in the identity economy of social media — in terms of it. (Bonnie Stewart at Salon.com)Klout's standards for calculating influence demand less meaningful kinds of interaction in the interest of better scores:
First, if you actually communicate with people one-on-one rather than just doing mass broadcasts, it can negatively impact your score.Klout's lack of transparency makes users believe that they are being assessed across networks that have no bearing upon their score:
Second, if you engage with people with lower Klout scores, it can also negatively impact your own score. (Sharon Hayes)
They tricked me into connecting networks that aren’t included in scoring algorithm. (Pam Moore at Business 2 Community)Klout is unable to assign appropriate, related topics to users that even make contextual sense a good portion of the time:
I can understand that Klout might be right about a few things; I do talk about community management, writing, blogging, parenting, and being a mom a lot – but Barbies? I wrote one post on the symbolism of Barbie and growing up and now I’m influential about it. Try again Klout. I’m no more influential about Barbies than I am about NASA. (Nichole L. Smith)Klout's mysteriously derived metrics aren't really the standard for proving influence that they say they are:
If you need to look at my Klout score to determine if I have influence, I don't. (Jeff Turner)Klout's continuing lack of transparency doesn't breed a sense of trust in their system:
This issue I have with this is the complete lack of honesty and transparency coming from Klout. At almost every juncture, Klout chooses obfuscation and dishonesty, rather than transparency and good citizenship. A constant stream of PR-speak, half-truths and misdirection. (Hollis Tibbetts at Social Media Today)And then, there's nothing like honest engagement:
Conversations are better when no one is keeping score. (Chris Sacca on Twitter)Klout claims to be making improvements, but, due to a lack of the transparency and accuracy they claimed to have but completely failed to exhibit while calling themselves the standard for influence, I don't feel inspired to put either my faith or my and my friends' information behind Klout's metric. Klout's apparently growing power to influence how we interact with each other and how marketers and organizations define social influence makes their privacy issues, status as a network that opts you in without consent, lack of accuracy, failure at transparency, inaccuracy both with scores and topics, unfounded claim of legitimacy, and inability to value deeper versus broad engagement a real and growing concern.
I realized that not opting out of Klout's network meant tacit support of Klout's methods of measurement and the very real effects that those flawed metrics have on individuals both personally and professionally. Unless I opted out, I was lending active support to their system of measurement as it now stands, and it is simply not one I want to back.
How to Opt Out of Klout
Whether you signed up for Klout or not, Klout has likely created a public profile for you already. It is a system that opts you in without your permission simply because you have social media accounts elsewhere. To find out if you need to opt your information out of their system, simply go to http://klout.com/YourTwitterUsername to see if they have opted you in.- Log in to Klout.
- Go to Klout's Privacy Policy.
- Under the Use of Data heading near the bottom of the Privacy Policy page, click on "click here".
- Click on "Continue opting-out" near the bottom of the following page.
- Fill out the form with your reason for opting out and your name and click "Submit".
- The following message will pop up:
Thanks, you have successfully opted out of Klout. You will be removed from Klout.com within 24-48 hours. You will be removed from our API within 7 days. If you decide to opt back into Klout you will have to sign up again and it will take at least 90 days for us to accurately measure your influence. For the quickest removal from our systems you can choose to deauthorize the Klout app from your social accounts by going into the relevant network’s settings page.
Unfortunately, you are potentially still in their system for a time after you opt out, but at least your profile will be taken out of circulation and you will be on your way to withdrawing your support of their system.
Click here to get simple directions to opt your other social media sites out of Klout.
So, after all is said and done, are you staying with Klout or opting out of the network? Why?
categorized in writing and blogging and tagged in Klout, blogging, how-to, internet, lists, social media
writing and blogging and tagged in Klout, blogging, how-to, internet, lists, social media 
Reader Comments (40)
After feeling more and more uneasy about Klout this is the push I needed to delete my account.
This might have been the thing that would've given you clout about Klout.
I never joined in the first place but your post makes me wonder: Do I need to opt out anyway? Is it possible that I have a profile I never knew about -- like 13-year-old Matthew?
With much less research I opted out about 6 weeks ago. Though I only revoked Klout's permission to my accounts, maybe I should do the opt out too?
I felt I was overly concerned with an arbitrary number.
I joined it to see what the fuss was, and generally have a score in the low 50s, but still have no idea what the point is. Then there was the time that Klout sent my husband, whose score always runs lower, a free sample of hair product. To a man who never ever ever ever uses hair product, nor has he ever tweeted, blogged or otherwise commented anywhere, even to me, about hair product. And yet, I use it all the time. So I have no idea what Klout hoped to accomplish.
I simply don't see the point. I will be disengaging too.
Yes, all of this! I quit Klout about 2 weeks ago for all of the above reasons. It really bothers me that they create accounts for pretty much anyone with a twitter or facebook account without their knowledge. Hello Big Brother.
I've been waffling about quitting Klout for awhile. This article pushed me to finally do it. Thanks for posting it.
I didn't like when I saw people who never signed up for it with scores and encouragement to invite them.
That and I don't like the idea of my entire online worth being distilled into a numerical value that changes based on a less-than-transparent algorithm
Thank you for putting this together, this was the kick in the right direction that I needed. Operation Privacy Pirate has commenced and I'm now without any klout. And it feels gooooooooood.
I think I signed up for Klout after The Bloggess mentioned it, but I became quickly bored with it. For others who used it to ONLY make up a part of their on-line activities were quickly blocked.
For me, one's clout lies in their content as related specifically to me, not how a system sees it related to everyone else. I'm selfish that way. Good for you for quitting.
I also had a Klout score of 53. There is NO WAY I have the same amount of influence that you do. That is just absurd.
I opted out.
I just quit.
(Although I hesitated because in two days my score had jumped from 24 to 38...nothin' like some positive reinforcement to make me think twice! Approval junkie.)
I've been seeing so many people commenting about quitting Klout. Yours is the first post that clearly gave me explanations as to why. I've gone back and forth. I think you've influenced me to be done with Klout (hmm... if you were still on Klout... would one of your topics of influence be "quitting Klout"?)
My biggest personal problem was the topics it said I and other people are influential about. Some make sense... some are ridiculous. How in the world they decided I was influential about "teeth" is beyond me. But then... because it's kinda funny... people would click on that. It was very hard to seriously say what people had influence in since you couldn't add topics (although it says they're adding that I guess).
The only thing I really got out of it? A free set of Moo cards. It's the only "perk" I ever really go though.
Holy shit! I just went to the site and I DO have a profile despite the fact that I never signed up. Opting out now... Thanks for letting me know.
The whole idea of Klout always annoyed me, despite having a score that was relatively high. I don't want to feel that I have to tweet a certain amount or with certain people to maintain some score. When I heard about the Facebook thing, I removed all the sites from Klout and my score stayed the same which simply proved to me that their algorithm was total bs, just as you mentioned as well. I've been trying to quit for weeks but had no idea how until last night. Thanks so much for sharing that info!!
So I've recently been asked for my Klout score by a marketing network I belong to. I'm so tired of being rated on influence. I've been around these parts for a relatively long time. If I don't have a shred of influence with the amazing people I've met through social media...well then I have no idea why they keep talking to me.
I want to go back to the old days. Writing & conversations. That was real influence.
I have been going back and forth with this and I think I must quit....with tween sons approaching Facebook accounts and the lack of privacy -- it is just plain creepy.
I opted out last week. I didn't like how ooky it made me feel every time I checked my score. It's the same reason I don't have analytics on my blog and why I try, not very successfully, to not get worked up over the lack of comments I get on my blog. I hate popularity contests and that's what Klout felt like to me.
I'm out! Thanks for explaining how to do it.
Wow. I've never created an account, never visited the site. Recently someone on Twitter told me what my Klout score was. I ignored it. Now I have to do something I guess. Sometimes the internet is really, really scary. Thanks for the info.
@SandieGoMomma and @Bernthis both quit as well.
I read this post this morning, and have been thinking about how I want to answer it. Because I don't disagree with you; Klout is beyond stupid. The day that most people's K fell, mine rose two points. And it has continued to rise beyond all reason. Last week, I took two days off from Twitter and still it rose. I am a lackadaisical SM user on my best day and am mostly too shy to interact with most people outside of a small group. There is no good reason for me to have the score I do.
Here is why I'm not ready to quit: Last month, I had a nice, long chat and scored a full submission with a highly respected literary agent who is one of the top 15 in my target market. One of the first things she said to me during our convo was that she was pleased with my Klout score. I told her yes, but I don't even have 400 followers and I don't blog about writing all that often and I am not out there "building platform". And that's true; I am not one of the many (MANY) writers who retweet links to other writers' Ten Ways to Write Better Characters blogposts and I don't take part in the writer hashtags. But the score was still very valuable to her; it said that I was comfortable using Twitter to engage and that was something she felt was an asset to the book and its potential sale to a publisher.
So I'm not removing my score yet. I'm not doing anything purposeful to grow my Klout--I've stopped checking it, and I don't check anyone else's, and I don't +K anyone. But since I'm receiving benefits that go beyond free Moo cards, I don't mind them ranking me right now. When I start to hear from agents and editors that they don't care about Klout, I'll opt out, because it is grody to me. Or maybe after I've sold a book, or convinced whichever agent I do sign with that a Klout score has no meaning.
I'm going to subscribe to comments on this post, because I'm really interested in hearing what anyone else might have to say, and especially if anyone else has experienced a similar benefit.
I think Klout rewards behavior that is more online than offline, right?
It rewards those who don't spend enough time in the real world.
Most of these seem like reasons to quit Facebook, also.
I didn't even know what Klout was. I always thought I was so hip with the trends 'n all.
I decided to quit after seeing this post.
And apparently I was an expert on guns. WTF?
This post gave me the extra push I needed to opt out. My score was higher than it should have been, IMO. Didn't make sense, and the privacy concerns are too much.
I have been so on the fence about this. I had a Klout score of 76 a month ago and it fell to 54 with the new scoring. Today I checked it out and I have, apparently, made a one day jump to 59. I just have little to no confidence in their scoring. If it weren't for Kim's comment above I wouldn't have believed that it could influence gaining business. I am going to think about this some more but I can tell you that if I made the decision right now I'd be over there opting out. I'll give it a day or two...
I have (now had) a Klout account, but I never did anything with it. I'm not even sure how I got it. Klout makes me feel bad about myself. It's like high school all over again. Popularity contest, who're influencing, blah, blah, blah. Screw that.
Hi Shmutzie,
I need to point out something VERY important about your post. Unfortunately, once you've connected your accounts, opting out of Klout does NOT mean that Klout will stop collecting your data. In fact, Klout can and will continue to access your linked accounts and collect your data to rank other users. Unless...
You need to manually enter every account you have linked with Klout (Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, etc.) go into your application settings and revoke the permission of the Klout app. Otherwise, you're not really disconnected at all...
There's a great post explaining how to do this here:
http://www.jureklepic.com/2011/10/31/how-to-get-your-profile-and-data-completely-disconnected-from-klout/?t=1320057185
for those that might need some help. Thanks for all the great info about Klout; I have been researching it as well, but some of your info was new to me and completely fascinating. I have purged Klout from every aspect of my life except Twitter and will most likely remove my account completely having read this. Thanks again! :)
Yours is the third (very influential) anti-Klout piece of read -- a Klout Klobber, we might say. You pulled together arguments that make a lot of sense...even though I never actually figured out what the hell Klout was, anyway. I have Klout account, people have even +Kd me, but to what end, I have no idea. I'm struck by the comment above about the literary agent who was reassured by Klout scores - and I'm wondering if just showing her a twitter stream wouldn't do the same thing? I dunno. It all started to seem too much like "here is where the cool kids in the lunch room sit" and ... okay, I was the dweeb sitting by the dish room. So perhaps my quitting is a tad sour grapes but only partly. A teensy part. Mostly it just gave me the willies.
Congrats on your Klouticide. Klout is a business, not a social service!
I'm on there but only log into it and pay attention to it a few times a month, if that often. I think it's pretty stupid. But then again, I'm not trying to court marketers with my blogging anyway.
Kreepy Klout! Not kool.
What a great post. I was religiously checking my klout score until their recent algorithm change and am so glad to have cut the cord. I have not opted out yet but will after this post and hope people continue to lose faith in the site. Oh and twitter is much more fun when you aren't worrying about a score.
Sharing this post everywhere, you site great points.
Just so you know how much influence I have and how good I am at social media stuff: I signed up and have never logged back in. Guess who is deleting now?
Really appreciate your thoughtful, insightful and honest analysis of Klout. This service has been bothering me for a while - it converts social activity into a transactional experience that devalues it. Sadly, we're all so quick to jump on board with something that instantly gratifies our own importance. Guess we haven't out grown the high school popularity contest.
I do have a Klout account, but I have never had it do anything for me except get me a free Spotify account. I just logged in for the first time in ages and it says I am influential about dogs and voting among other things that I don't know anything helpful about. I am a cat owner ex-pat living in Australia where I can't yet vote. Seems pretty random to me, so I don't see how it would be a reliable source for companies to use to gauge social media reach and topical knowledge.
I never considered closing my Klout account as I don't really "use" it thinking sort of "if a Klout tree falls in the forest of the internet, does it matter?"
Your post has me thinking though.
Hi and thanks for the post. It convinced me to opt out of Klout. I found that within my field of influence (not according to Klout) people were starting to sign up because I had signed up, and I couldn't really explain why they should. Then I got some random benefits and the topics of influence don't correlate to what I do or tweet/write/blog about and the score kept jumping up ten points, then down, then up. I felt like I was a market trader with money in options. If you are going to sign up to something that gives you a number, then you are agreeing that number means something. Unfortunately, I don't think it really does. That's fundamentally why I have opted out.
LOL. Classic
I have opted out. The Klout score 57 didn't reflect my RT situation and was demanding I please some commercial outlet by twting for a purpose beyond genuinely communicating with twtrs.. Felt like I was a slave to some new master. I quit.
Hi and thanks for the post. It convinced me to opt out of Klout. I found that within my field of influence (not according to Klout) people were starting to sign up because I had signed up, and I couldn't really explain why they should.
I have very mixed feelings about this subject. While I agree with most of what you say about it being a poor reflections of true influence and encouraging bad online behaviour, I'm not sure deleting the profile is the answer.
Whenever I see a fairly prominent person with no klout score (I have the chrome app so it shows next to the name it the twitter stream) I can't help but wonder what insecurity made them delete it.
If you really don't care about it, you would be ambivalent to what some third party piece of software says about you. The fact is that most people do care and not having a score indicates an insecurity about that (alleged) influence being seen by others.
If a business, rightly or wrongly, were using Klout as a factor in recruitment what would they prefer? I guess it depends on the role, but one thing that Klout does show is how interactive you are online. A low score indicates that you don;t spend much time on it. No score at all? I'm not sure what that says.