How else can you protect your Facebook data?

There really is only one way to make sure data we create on a daily basis remains entirely private, thinks Dr Bernal. "Leave Facebook."

"The incentive Facebook will have to protect people more will only come if people start leaving. Currently it has very little incentive to change," he told the BBC.

It seems he is not alone in his in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal.

But Dr Bernal acknowledges that it is unlikely many will quit - especially those who see Facebook as "part of the infrastructure of their lives".

The less drastic option is deactivation, which stops an account from appearing in search results but gives the user the option to bring it back. It would stop future tracking but means all the information already collected will still be kept.

For those that decide deletion is the best option, users can head to the delete my account page, which explains that once gone, information cannot be retrieved.

The page is not easy to find on the site and requires quite a few steps:

§  From the top right of the blue bar, click the downward arrow

§  Select settings

§  Click General

§  Click Manage Account

§  Click Request Deletion

§  In the pop-up box, which is aimed at people who want to delete their account in the event of their death, click Learn More

§  Scroll down to the section headed Deleting Your Account and click on the link

Facebook advises users who delete their account to download a copy of their information before they delete it. They also warn users that the process can take up to 90 days, during which time the information is inaccessible to others using the platform.