What happens when the very way you prove who you are is stolen by someone else? And what happens when a country stands up to Meta and builds their own.

More like this: The Vaporstate: ID in India

For episode two of The Vaporstate, Alix is joined by Rafael Zanatta and Luã Cruz. Rafa walks us through the incredible story of how his mom’s digital ID was stolen and a clever bank teller stopped someone from halfway across the country from stealing her savings. Luã ****shares the geopolitical battles that prevented a Meta takeover of Brazilian peer-to-peer payment and the roll out of a frictionless financial transaction system called PIX.

Further reading & resources:

• Brazil Has The World’s Most Accessed Citizen Services Platform — Forbes, March 2024
• More about Data Privacy Brazil
• The Tyranny of Convenience by Tim Wu — New York Times, 2018
• Works by South Korean philosopher Byung-Chul Han
• Lula pushing back against Trump’s tariffs — AP, September 2025
• More about The Brazilian Institute for Consumer Protection

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Post Production by Sarah Myles | Pre Production by Georgia Iacovou