Last week Twitter announced suspension of two popular applications that violated the company’s policies. The news of the mobile app pulls hit Twitter quickly, and left the first page of our timelines in the same fashion.

The apps—UberTwitter and Twitroyd (for Blackberry and Android, respectively)—were among hundreds of Twitter applications that are pulled each day. While Twitter’s explanation at their own site is rather vague, the company told Mashable that the violations include “changing the content of users’ Tweets in order to make money”.

While content altering is something users would undoubtedly take issue with, even more disconcerting is Twitter’s statement that, “…on an average day we turn off more than one hundred services that violate our API rules of the road.” And, no doubt, privacy is part of Twitter’s developer policy.

Example of Twitter's authorization screen

Only allow trusted sites, services and apps to connect to your social media accounts.

Millions of web pages feature ways to share content via Twitter, including sites that use their own methods of connecting users to the social site. It’s similar to how brands and services connect users to Facebook, requiring the user to click a button that approves the application in order to gain access to their accounts.

My point is simple… think before you share through third-party tools. When it comes to spreading the word via Twitter, Facebook and other sites, most of these tools are there to “dummy proof” the process. Twitter and Facebook have their own official scripts which any web site can use to promote content sharing. Look for these official methods, and research third-party apps to determine if they can be trusted.