Facebook can't fake it any longer
![Facebook says it couldn't access encrypted messages even if the Turnbull government forced it to.](http://web.archive.org./web/20181226141106im_/https://www.afr.com/content/dam/images/1/0/e/8/2/k/image.related.afrIndexLeadWide.460x260.h190vm.gshfrb.png/1545812805513.jpg)
Facebook used to be a fun place where friends shared cat videos and swapped memes, then we discovered it had teeth and claws. Now the social network has hired teams to try and tame the beast.
Facebook used to be a fun place where friends shared cat videos and swapped memes, then we discovered it had teeth and claws. Now the social network has hired teams to try and tame the beast.
As rough a year as its been, Australians have many reasons to be thankful for strong institutions and a growing economy that have helped to keep the troubles of the world at bay.
Equities look better value after recent falls but investors need to keep an eye on six key factors that may extend the global cycle in the new year.
From Donald Trump's bloviating incompetence to Viktor Orban's 'slavery laws', 2018 has seen a staggering number of countries woefully misruled by the worst crop of world leaders in recent memory.
While nobody died, this was a pretty grim Christmas for the residents and owners of the Opal Tower in Sydney's Olympic Park.
A global economy that until recently was humming has broken down, a sharp contrast to the picture just a year ago when the world was experiencing its best growth since 2010.
As long as the economy is doing well and people have jobs, the RBA is not too concerned about falling property prices increasing negative equity.
NSW orders 'comprehensive' investigation into developer Ecove's Opal Tower in Sydney Olympic Park.
Baby Boomers are a powerful economic group, but many brands are still struggling to talk to them.
After a year of unprecedented scrutiny by the Hayne inquiry, banks are desperate to ensure the sharing of customer data under the government's "open banking" regime doesn't sow the seeds of the next royal commission.
Post-Christmas sales are expected to rise 3.1 per cent, with bargain hunters expected to splurge $2.5 billion in the Boxing Day sales.
As long as the economy is doing well and people have jobs, the RBA is not too concerned about falling property prices increasing negative equity.
The bull market that for 10 years has confounded and chastened its detractors is staggering up to death's door. And the haters and admirers are all turning out to pronounce last rites.
Christmas Day brought no presents for the Japanese sharemarket, as the Nikkei 225 Stock Average plunged below 20,000 and slipped into a bear market.
US President Donald Trump has suggested a swoon in US sharemarkets is a buying opportunity for investors, even though many analysts blame his policies for the plunge.
As the Fed responds more and more to factors beyond its control, the markets begin to fear a policy mistake, writes Mohamed A. El-Erian.
Top US financial regulators assured Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin during a hastily organised call that they are seeing nothing out of the ordinary in markets.
While nobody died, this was a pretty grim Christmas for the residents and owners of the Opal Tower in Sydney's Olympic Park.
Purges like the Hayne royal commission and #MeToo show a mature democracy able to repair itself without over-reacting
US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis achieved that glorious double in his letter of never directly attacking the president, while not missing any of his questionable strategic calls.
The banks are being justifiably cautious on home loans and will be building even more equity capital buffers. This means they'll need less capital, which explains their hybrids' strong performance, writes Christopher Joye.
As voters prepare to return to the polls in 2019, is lying in federal politics easier because of Donald Trump?
Labor's presumptuous attitude is a mistake - there is a long way to run between now and election day.
Australia is on track to drastically miss its Paris greenhouse emissions reduction targets by 19 percentage points, new government figures show.
Adani will miss its Christmas deadline to begin construction of its Carmichael mine after the Palaszczuk government commissioned a new independent review.
A triple pile-on on Scott Morrison government's big stick energy policies last week leaves the government with nowhere to go.
Indonesian authorities have warned of "extreme weather and high waves" around the erupting Anak Krakatau volcano, urging people to stay away.
A local governor and her husband have been killed just days after she had taken office following a bitterly contested election.
China has slashed the number of sectors closed to foreign or non-state investment by more than half, in Beijing's latest move to open up the world's second-largest economy.
Television footage captured bespectacled Nissan executive Greg Kelly slowly walking out of the detention centre on Christmas Day.
President Donald Trump criticised departing Defence Secretary James Mattis for failiig to recognise the true costs of America's military support around the world.
While we're in Christmas mode, it's worth thinking about how to encourage a community buzz that remains.
For older parents, it's about making your wishes heard. For adult children, it's about sharing the responsibility.
A new study suggests that the most lucrative investment a fund could make would be paying to relocate its operations as far away from the financiers as possible.
These days, most of us are alert to the perils of unconscious bias in our professional lives. But I hadn't expected to find it so explicitly on my bookshelves.
As in 2015, Australia withstood both a change of Test cricket captain and of Prime Minister. Both high offices are now occupied by placeholders.
Credit Suisse is focusing on Australia's younger generation of internationally minded, tech-savvy customers as it ramps up its private banking business.
Lord Ashdown of Norton-sub-Hamdon, who has died aged 77, led the Liberal Democrats over 11 years from near-eclipse to the fringe of participation in Tony Blair's Labour government, but could not translate this advance into real power.
It's an all-Australian battle for line honours in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race after an eventful start in which one yacht was clamped and the only foreign supermaxi withdrew.
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