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"A state judge in the Brazilian state of Sergipe has ordered all mobile phone operators in the country to block Facebook-owned WhatsApp for 72 hours, nationwide. Those five telecom providers put the ban into effect today, and it affects about 100 million people. In Brazil, WhatsApp is the most popular messaging app."

"For now, the cost and difficulty of stealing fingerprints or maps of palm veins in any usable format keep most fraudsters away. But as biometrics serve as a guardhouse for more money and other valuables, the systems will become more appealing targets. That means that research into anti-spoofing safeguards will be a critically important factor in the mainstream adoption of biometric systems, according to Ross."

"The study by US-based thinktank the Technology Policy Institute (TPI) is the first that attempts to quantify the value of online privacy and data. It assessed how much privacy is worth in six countries by looking at the habits of people in the United States, Germany, Mexico, Brazil, Columbia and Argentina."

"The platformization of labor affects workers of all kinds, across platforms. On "click farm" platforms in Brazil, workers perform countless fragmented data tasks. They spend hours every day clicking, following, and commenting on social media accounts - and earning less than a penny for each task."

"CHICAGO, June 18 (Reuters) - Bayer's crop science division is increasingly turning to artificial intelligence in its battle against crop killing weeds, the company told Reuters. Weeds are growing resistant to the herbicides already on the market, and agribusiness companies like Bayer are in a desperate search for new modes of action to help farmers kill them. Bayer's Icafolin product will be its first new mode of action herbicide in some 30 years when it launches in Brazil in 2028."

"Personal information of more than 243 million Brazilians was exposed for more than six months thanks to weakly encoded credentials stored in the source code of the Brazilian Ministry of Health's website. The data leak exposed both living and deceased Brazilians' medical records to possible unauthorized access. The incident was the second reported by Brazilian publication Estadão and among several others recently affecting South America's largest nation's healthcare system."

"He quit the same way he'd been given the job: through a WhatsApp message. He had neither a contract nor any documents regulating his employment. For Felipe, the plan to make a little quick money became a hellish experience. With TikTok's short-form video format, much of the audio that needed transcription was only a few seconds long. The payment, made in U.S. dollars, was supposed to be $14 for every hour of audio transcribed. Amassing the secondslong clips into an hour of transcribed audio took Felipe about 20 hours. That worked out to only about 70 cents per hour - or 3.85 Brazilian reals, about three-quarters of Brazil's minimum wage."

"The role of social media platforms and messaging apps in Sunday's political violence in Brasília is under the spotlight after experts highlighted their use by Jair Bolsonaro supporters to question the presidential election result and organise the protests. Facebook and Instagram's owner, Meta, has said it will take down content that praises the storming of government buildings in Brazil's capital, amid claims that tech firms had not done enough to head off the attacks or quell disinformation."

"Access to the platform must now be blocked "throughout the Brazilian territory," the source said on condition of anonymity, confirming media reports citing the judge's ruling."