Every like, share and post, every message and call, is data to be stored.

"We've created a monster," said Juli Hinds, Ph.D., Medaille College communications and sports management assistant professor. "Once you're on Facebook, your fantasies about being private are an illusion.”

You probably didn't even notice it happening. 

"Who reads that agreement form? You just hit ‘I accept,’” said Hinds.

That form spelled out that Facebook was gathering users' information and selling it to third parties, including Cambridge Analytica, which used that information to push content to users to sway the 2016 presidential election.

"It's being used in sophisticated and subtle ways to target information to you. The result is that we're more likely to exist in echo chambers and be exposed to more and more narrow slices of news," said Michael Stefanone, Ph.D., a University at Buffalo communication department associate professor.

In the wake of public outcry over the data collection, Facebook now says it is overhauling its privacy and security settings. It has already consolidated the pages into one location to make it more user-friendly.

"From a usability standpoint, that's important. I think they have to respond in some way to the growing anger that their users are exhibiting. But in the short term, I don't think it's going to have that much of an effect," said Stefanone.

Hinds added, "I don't really see that they've changed that much. There's ethics involved. They have to do a better job. But also, we as people who use this site need to be more savvy, just think about ‘what am I putting out there?’"

Experts say it's important to look at your privacy settings and update them accordingly. You can also download all of your photos and videos posted to Facebook and delete your profile, and even erase some of the information that's shared with Facebook.

The new controls also better spell out what data the company collects and how it's used. But it does not affect how Facebook collects the data.

"Be sure you're not signing in through other apps and using Facebook to sign in. Like, people will go to dating sites and use Facebook to log in because it's easier. Well, now they have more information about you, not just information you share with your friends, but they now have information about your dating preferences. So we're basically handing them who we are, and then being a little surprised that they're using that data," said Hinds.

The communications experts that spoke with Spectrum News say even though Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg will be testifying before some congress subcommittees about the issue, they don't anticipate much of anything will happen because the federal government has been leaning toward deregulation policies.