Buying Things Online in Brazil Page Content Page Name (for URL) Page Title Breadcrumb Text As I was reading up on software industry in Brazil, I came across a few references to the importance of government purchases - the papers claimed that Brazilian government is widely recognized as a leader in moving its activities to the Internet, e.g. reaching higher rate of e-filing of income taxes than US. Yesterday, I got some direct experience with this while trying to purchase airline tickets. As it turns out, everyone in Brazil has an equivalent of American "social security number," known as "CPF" ("Cadastro de Pessoas Fisicais" - "Registry of Physical Persons"). Unlike US, CPF is required for all online purposes. Further more, companies check CPF in government databases in real time to verify that it matches the name provided. Presumably, the purpose is to make sure that all online purchases are tracked for tax purposes. I am of too minds about this. On one hand, I am impressed that they got all of this working. On the other hand, there is a creepy "number of the beast" aspect to it. And needless, to say, as a foreigner without the magic number, I am annoyed I can't make purchases online on my own. I guess there are still limits to globalization. Advanced Fields Category 2002200320042005200620072008200920102011201220132014E. AsiaE. EuropeL's FamilyL's FriendsN. AmericaN. EuropeS. AmericaS. AsiaW. EuropeY & LY's FamilyY's Friends Prototype Redirect Permissions0 Actions Config Markup Module HTML/Meta/Keywords HTML/Meta/Description Save Hook HTML Fields Main Head Body Header Menu Logo Content Template Page Sidebar Footer Tags Allowed for XSSFilter HTTP Fields Cache-Control Expires Guru Fields Templates Translations Fields Edit UI Admin Edit UI Don't put anything here A summary of your changes Edit Summary Don't put anything here Don't put anything here Don't put anything here Don't put anything here Don't put anything here save preview cancel
