Their algorithms sometimes make no damn sense though... if I am making pro choice arguments in favour of abortion and am talking about being happily childfree and they come back advertising surrogacy services to me, aka trying to get me to be a surrogate, what kind of faulty algorithm is that?!

It would not be possible for a hacker to hack your computer specifically from just knowing you through Facebook. The hacker would need much more. Otherwise everyone would be being backed and this would be all over the news. Your computer would also need to have sone kind of non-standard configuration that would have already been vulnerable.

@Vpatel
...but then there are hackers and hackerrrrrs. They don't have to splash across the news and make it public but use to their advantage, not so?

@TimeOutForMe I don't think so. Im assuming here were are talking about actually hacking his computer, and not simply getting into his Facebook account, which can be socially engineered.

For starters, they would have to identify his computer out of the tens of billions in the world (there are more phones / computers in the world than people). This could be done if someone asked him, he typed in "IP address" into Google, and gave it to the hacker, but that is unlikely.

But even if the hacker got the IP address, his router would need to be in a non-standard configuration, with open ports, to let the hackers traffic through. Then, his operating system would be needed to have its firewall disabled, and set to allow external connections. That would take some deliberate know-how and use case by the victim.

There are too many hoops to jump through.

Because of the real prize of someone's data here, if this was happening, then the victims would be making a real fuss about it, if not the hackers.

I'm not saying that @BestWithoutGods didn't have issues with his computer, but these could have been caused by an opportunistic virus from a hacked website, for example, or his computer just playing up.

He also mentioned that he got a new computer and the issue went away. But even if the hacker succeeded in hacking his old computer, they would never have physically damaged the actual hardware. A clean reformat and a reinstall of the OS would have been fine. The only exception is if the BIOS was corrupted, but then his computer would never have booted.

And if they hacked his old computer through the IP address, then there would be nothing to stop the hacker infecting his new computer, as most people with broadband have a static IP address.

So that's why I don't think he got hacked.

@Vpatel
I'm impressed with your answer.

@Vpatel Thanks for your explanation. I guess it was just a coincidence, then.

@BestWithoutGods You are correct though in that the people here are much friendlier. When I joined Facebook, it was all about photos of friends and family, and community. Now its all been replaced by corporate adverts, news websites sharing doom and gloom, etc. I feel more at home here too.

Correct. What they are doing is gathering information for polls and viewpoints, etc. I still confuse the hell out of them because I will not tell them Debbie is my step-daughter. I'm delighted that they do not know. With a handful of followers myself, FB musty be confused that they are from other religions and other countries. I am delighted that Agent Orange and his followers continue to tell me that I am not a U.S. citizen. My user name is the same as here.

Thankfully I never had the need to be on Facebook.

Someone that fits the description of MC did the rounds on our local secular/Atheist telegram chat in South Africa this, degraded women, caused division, mocked logic and human rights, a twisted mind indeed,

@powder
Hey its been a while since I last heard from you. Still peddling that Russia-friendly line of bullshit I see. You must really think we are all idiots. It is obvious that Putin's shenanigans, meddling in other countries politics, etc., has paid off spectacularly in terms of sowing division and discord among his opponents. With an American President bending over backwards for him, Putin has never had a stronger hand since his illegal annexation of Crimea and Invasion of eastern Ukraine. He has managed to get a few Republicans in Congress to repeat (with straight faces!) the fiction that it was Ukraine who hacked the 2016 election. It's quite an accomplishment! Of course, the sanctions are still biting. The Russian people have had a tough time. They are getting impatient with the Putin's kleptocracy. I'm sure Vlad is a bit nervous. It was never going to be a simple thing to get the sanctions lifted But Putin is crafty and patient and implacable. He is playing the long game, and doing it masterfully. I have to give him that. It would be a grave mistake to ever underestimate him. Actually I'm not surprised to hear from you, now that the 2020 election is just around the corner. It's about time for the snakes to wake up and start slithering around.

@powder
I think you wanted to say "woke people like you...." Don't worry, your English is quite good. You should be proud of your accomplishment. As for the ease with which Americans can be manipulated, it is not at all surprising. You see, in this country we have freedom of expression. People are allowed to say whatever they want within broad limits. And they are allowed to decide for themselves what they accept or reject. It's a messy system, and we have not yet learned how to deal with this new phenomenon called social media. But we are learning. Are we learning fast enough to avoid a takeover by criminals? One can only hope. Still, I would take this country any day over one like Putin's Russia, where journalists and political opponents are simply murdered or jailed on trumped-up charges.

@powder
Oh yeah, it's true that American people have been disenfranchised. Nothing new there. Mostly black people, getting screwed over by racist white Americans. There is no doubt that this country has much to account for. Like I said, it's a messy system. But it has the potential to be so much more. And much progress has been made. What we don't need is foreign influences like the 70,000 fake Facebook accounts run by Putin's Internet Research Agency, which were so adroitly targeted with the help of massive amounts if data supplied by Cambridge Analytica. But I think you have a much more intimate knowledge of that than you let on. What is your rank, if you don't mind my asking?

@Flyingsaucesir I can only see your half of this conversation and it was still wildly entertaining!

@RavenCT
Wow, thanks for the compliment! I wish you could see the other side too. I wonder why you cannot. You probably gathered that my interlocutor and I had crossed paths before. It goes back to the days following the 2016 election. He consistently takes a pro-Russia/Trump position, denying what actually occurred while doing his best to obfuscate and distract from the real issues. He pretends to be an Aussie but I think he is a Russian military troll. His English has improved in the last three years, but he still slips up once in a while. To my querry about his rank he replied, "You can call me Tsar." (!)

@Flyingsaucesir He blocked me - that happens here a lot.H
But it's fun seeing someone poking holes in his conspiracy theories.

@RavenCT
Blocked you? That sounds rather cowardly.

@Flyingsaucesir Give it a year or so and blocking will seem merciful. There's always some folks who will tell you the sky is green just to have an argument and than there are the ones with proof of some alternate color from some really strange resource they cherry picked.
In those cases where you realize you'll never change a mind because anything you cite is called bad science or fake news? Well let's just say I've used that block button. Endless futile debate isn't fun anymore.
But I do take the time to know the difference.

@RavenCT
I totally get it. It can seem like tilting at windmills, mixing it up with the peckerwoods. But sometimes I like the intellectual challenge. It can be better than a crossword puzzle. ☺

Why is FB the only way of getting in touch with family? They can send you pics on other social media platforms and you can do video calls from time to time. Unless you do not wish to share your mobile number with those family members. I am not looking for anyone and not interested in anyone looking for me. I'm always in contact with those I know and visa versa.

@TimeOutForMe I have a large extended family, that the only communication is when someone dies, when we are having a reunion or someone has been born. All times when mass communication works best, FB is easy for these types of communications and you don't have to depend on someone remembering to include everyone that might be concerned.
And yes there are some people that might need to contact me that i don't want to have my cell number, I was in business for 30+ years before i retired and once in a while there are somethings that I am willing to help on. I have wseveral younger friends that even though they have my phone number use messenger to contact me.

@glennlab
I guess for that large a family perhaps FB works for you then and as you say don't want to leave anyone out.
...as that my cause problems even if wasn't intended.