Is Facebook listening to you?

Go into your phone's application settings and you'll see a whole list of what an app like Facebook has access to: your camera, your location, your contacts, and, yes, your microphone too.

How about this for a warning? By downloading Facebook you give the app "permission to record audio at any time without your confirmation."

Tom's Guide security editor Paul Wagenseil says Facebook can pick up sound in the background. Facebook claims it uses that background audio for advertising only.

But the obvious question is: can Facebook listen to your conversations? Wagenseil says yes Facebook could do that but it would be illegal to do so.

But for those who don't want to take any chances, Wagenseil says you can take steps to block Facebook's access to your phone's mic. He says go to permissions and turn off the microphone for every app that requests it. Wagenseil says he deleted the Facebook app from his phone because it asks for too many permissions.

Wagenseil says if you use the web version of Facebook on your phone it doesn't use your mic.

And it is not just Facebook. A number of apps have access to things like your mic, your text messages and your camera. All of those settings can be adjusted as well.