DIGITAL LIFE

Geopolitics in the cloud: the race between the Brazilian government and companies for data sovereignty

With escalating geopolitical tensions, the monopoly of big tech companies, and growing technological competition between major powers, the Brazilian government and companies have been seeking alternatives to repatriate their data, aiming to reduce the risks of foreign surveillance, strengthen digital sovereignty, and expand the protection of strategic information.

In Brazil, concern about data sovereignty has gained prominence in the last two years, mainly with the election of Donald Trump for his second term as President of the United States. The wars between Russia and Ukraine and the conflict between Israel and Hamas also reinforce the climate of insecurity.

The movement is global. The geopatriation of data, the act of transferring company data and applications from global public clouds to local options, has been identified by Gartner as one of the 10 strategic technology trends for 2026.

“There are concerns about information sovereignty and the laws of each country. Companies that fear that countries like the US and China may have some geopolitical problem generally seek local providers where they would be more protected,” explains Henrique Cecci, senior research director at Gartner.

Estimates from the research firm indicate that 75% of customers in Europe and the Middle East are expected to seek local cloud solutions in the next five years, compared to 5% currently. Although Gartner does not present specific projections for Brazil, Cecci states that demand here should also grow rapidly, albeit at different rates in each region.

Accelerated growth...The Brazilian company Eveo has benefited from the trend of data geopatriation and the search for cheaper services in the technology area. With the increased demand for local private clouds, the cloud company is expected to double in size this year.

According to Lucas Vanzin, co-founder and co-CEO of Eveo, the public cloud offers agility and elasticity to guarantee extra storage capacity on demand for companies, such as during Black Friday, which will take place next Friday (28). The private cloud, being local and dedicated to a single organization, guarantees greater control, customization, and security at a lower cost.

According to Eveo's Cost Reality Report 2025, Brazilian companies can reduce total cost of ownership by up to 60% by repatriating systems from the public cloud, usually offered by tech giants, to private or hybrid environments.

Cost cutting...The study analyzed invoices from 30 medium and large Brazilian companies over 12 months, simulating three scenarios: public, private, and hybrid cloud. The projections considered a five-year period, the exchange rate between the real and the dollar, and average inflation on the price of energy.

“Since the market is growing a lot, there's room for everyone. We even suggest the public cloud for clients with a larger workload. As specialists, we know the limitations of each option,” says Vanzin.

According to Igor Santos, an executive in the data storage and protection business unit at IBM Brazil, companies should not only evaluate the adoption of multiple cloud providers, but also have resilience in case of failures.

“The current geopolitical scenario reinforces that security should not be treated as an isolated component, but as an architectural strategy. Furthermore, modern security is based on the principle that incidents can happen, and the priority becomes the ability to recover quickly,” he analyzes.

Government Cloud...Data repatriation is not limited to the private sector. To strengthen the security of public data, the federal government launched the so-called "Government Cloud" in June, operated by the state-owned companies National Intelligence in Digital Government and Information Technology (Serpro) and Social Security Technology and Information Company (Dataprev).

The model foresees more than R$ 1 billion in investments and has partnerships with technology giants such as AWS, Huawei, Google, and Oracle.

According to the Ministry of Management and Innovation in Public Services (MGI), the "sovereign cloud" will primarily handle information requiring enhanced protection, such as tax, banking, business, and industrial data.

"Currently, we have 11 agencies migrating their data to this government cloud, and we aim to repatriate 20% of the data by the end of the current administration," says Rogério Mascarenhas, Secretary of Digital Government at MGI.

According to Mascarenhas, the initiative is also being developed in other countries, notably the European Union.

"In a complicated geopolitical moment, the country is moving forward with a model that ensures data is located in Brazil and hosted by public IT companies. This way, if a problem occurs, such as a cable break, for example, Brazilians will not be harmed, and public services will continue."

Reporter: Patricia Basilio, Brazil

 

DIGITAL LIFE

Researchers create a version of DeepSeek without Chinese censorship

Researchers at the Spanish company Multiverse Computing have announced the development of DeepSeek R1 Slim, a modified version 55% smaller than the powerful Chinese model. The main novelty is the removal of content restrictions imposed by the Chinese developers, allowing the system to answer questions on sensitive topics.

The project uses mathematical approaches inspired by quantum computing to compress the model and edit its biases with precision. The idea is to offer an alternative in the future for reducing computational costs and energy consumption, frequent bottlenecks in the development of new generative AIs.

According to MIT Technology Review, Multiverse applied an approach based on "tensor networks," a complex mathematical concept frequently used in quantum physics. This technique can manipulate large datasets more efficiently and allowed scientists to create a detailed "map" of all existing correlations within the original model.

With this mapping, it was possible to identify and remove the layers of censorship that align the model with the values ​​required by Chinese regulations. In practice, this made it possible to remove blocks that prevented the AI ​​from discussing certain topics, such as references involving President Xi Jinping.

After compressing and editing the parameters, the researchers made fine adjustments to ensure that the quality of the response remained close to that of the original model.

To validate its effectiveness, the team subjected DeepSeek R1 Slim to a test with about 25 questions on restricted subjects. The responses were evaluated by OpenAI's GPT-5, which confirmed that the new model provided factual answers comparable to those of Western systems.

The Multiverse initiative is yet another in the pursuit of efficiency in the artificial intelligence industry. DeepSeek itself has been working on "visual tokens" to improve the memory of AIs and make their models more effective.

Currently, the operation of cutting-edge models requires high-performance GPUs and high energy consumption. In an interview with the magazine, Multiverse co-founder and scientific director Roman Orús stated that current models are inefficient and that compressed versions can save resources while maintaining similar performance. The company plans to compress other open-source models in the future.

Furthermore, content freedom also drives the market. The removal of restrictions on Chinese models has attracted the attention of other companies in the sector. Perplexity, for example, has the R1 1776, another variant post-trained from the DeepSeek R1.

mundophone

DIGITAL LIFE

The global blackout that forced the world to rethink its digital dependence

A tiny glitch triggered a digital blackout that hit social networks, AI services, and essential websites around the world. The cause, far from hacker attacks, revealed something more unsettling: how a single poorly calibrated component can compromise a large part of the global online infrastructure and put millions of users at risk.

The digital collapse on November 18th caught the world by surprise. In a few hours, giant platforms went down simultaneously, raising rumors of cyberattacks and fueling concerns about data security. But the investigation showed that the origin of the problem was where it was least expected: within the very infrastructure that should protect and optimize global traffic. The episode reignites an urgent debate about the excessive dependence on a few providers.

The outage began suddenly, affecting social networks, AI services, streaming services, and corporate tools. Everywhere, websites displayed error 500, indicating an internal server failure. The cause, initially shrouded in suspicion of an attack, quickly pointed to Cloudflare — one of the main companies responsible for accelerating and protecting global online traffic.

Identifying the problem took hours, while users faced increasing instability. In the end, the company confirmed that the outage was not related to external intrusions, but rather to an unexpected technical defect capable of affecting millions.

The origin of the failure was in the module used to distinguish human traffic from automated traffic. This system, which receives frequent updates, suffered a change in the internal permissions of a database. This caused the file loaded into memory to double in size — exceeding the limit that the global proxy could process.

When trying to handle the larger file, the proxy failed, generating a chain of errors. As the file was regenerated every five minutes, depending on the server, it could appear intact or completely corrupted. Therefore, some services returned for brief moments before crashing again.

The chaos only ceased when the distribution of the defective file was interrupted and replaced with a stable version. After that, recovery was gradual.

The incident showed, once again, how the global internet depends on a few providers to function. When one of them fails, the effects spread rapidly through critical services, businesses, and ordinary users. Even without intrusions, internal errors can generate impacts as serious as a coordinated attack.

Furthermore, the episode highlights the complexity of modern systems: an imperceptible adjustment, misaligned with essential components, can trigger a chain reaction of global proportions.

What to expect going forward...Cloudflare stated that it has implemented preventive measures to prevent a recurrence of the problem. But the most important lesson is not technical — it is structural. The current internet operates as a highly interconnected and vulnerable ecosystem, where small failures can cause major blackouts. And, as long as this architecture does not change, global stability will continue to depend on mechanisms that are more fragile than we imagine.

mundophone

 

TECH

German study reveals that Gen Z cares little for collective issues, pragmatism reigns supreme

Images of Gen Z individuals staging climate protests are widespread, but the reality is quite different. A major study in Germany finds Generation Z to be unexpectedly pragmatic. Instead of idealistic worldviews, factors such as comfort, cost and convenience are paramount. The authors conclude that morals have little place in this generation.

The media's portrayal of self-sacrificing climate activists doesn't quite stand up to scrutiny. The ADAC Foundation and the SINUS Institute recently carried out a detailed survey among 16- to 27-year-olds, and the results completely shatter widespread assumptions. Saving the world is out, disillusionment reigns supreme. Gen Z appears to have had enough. Decisions are no longer based on the possible consequences for the collective good, but rather on cold, hard self-interest. The focus is no longer on looming global issues such as climate change, but on one's own comfort zone.

A look at the data leaves no room for doubt. When a young person faces real-life choices, such as whether to go to university or to enter the workforce, the global climate is usually a non-issue. Only a meager 12% consider environmental friendliness as a deciding factor in how they live their lives. This puts the younger generation even behind the average of the general population, where at least 15% pay attention to it. What counts instead are hard facts. It has to be fast (52%), reliable (48%) and affordable (44%). The moral compass is overridden by time constraints and financial pressures. Christina Tillmann, board member of the ADAC Foundation, calls this "de-ideologization".

The study also shatters an old prejudice regarding driver's licenses. Far from turning their backs on the status symbol that is the car, 58% of young adults in Germany already have a driver's license, with another 27% planning to get one. The car remains a cornerstone of mobility. Almost half (48%) get behind the wheel at least once a week. Although they also use public transport more often than average (59% weekly), it's not an either/or situation. They use whatever suits them best at the time.

The retreat into comfort zones is particularly evident when it comes to vacations. Here, the gap between expectations and reality diverge the most. While young people use cars for their holidays somewhat less frequently than the national average, 37% fly for their holidays. This is a record high across all age groups. The desire to travel is trumping concerns about one's carbon footprint.

Gen Z isn't exactly fond of politics either. Young people aren't interested in appeals to conscience. They want technology that delivers, which is why innovative technology is finding a receptive audience. 44% would jump into an autonomous car without hesitation, and 36% would even hop into a flying taxi. Compared to the Baby Boomers, they're true tech enthusiasts, but have their doubts about how the technology will be implemented.

Ronald Matta (translated by Jacob Fisher)

 

DIGITAL LIFE

Women say LinkedIn reach increases with 'masculine' profile and 'sexist' language

A series of collective experiments conducted by women on LinkedIn has reignited the debate about possible gender biases in the platform's algorithm.

In recent weeks, viral reports have claimed that changing the profile gender to "male" or rewriting the biography and publications using "sexist" business jargon would result in strong increases in reach and views.

The tests began after publications suggested that male profiles and texts with words like "accelerate," "transform," and "lead" would have greater visibility.

Last week, dozens of women decided to repeat the experiment. Some report significant gains in exposure, although LinkedIn denies that demographic information influences the distribution of content in the feed.

In a blog post on Thursday (20), LinkedIn acknowledged the trend, but stated that it does not consider "demographic information" when deciding who receives attention. Instead, it said that "hundreds of signals" influence the performance of a given post.

"Changing the gender on your profile doesn't affect how your content appears in search or feed," said Sakshi Jain, a LinkedIn spokesperson.

Even so, reports are piling up. Social media consultant Simone Bonnett, from Oxford, England, replaced her pronouns with "He/Him" and adjusted her profile name to "Simon E".

After the change, she said she saw a 1,600% increase in profile views and a 1,300% increase in post impressions, numbers she described as "amazing".

Communication strategist Megan Cornish, who works in the mental health technology sector, also tested changes to try to recover a reach that had been plummeting.

After changing her gender to "male," she asked ChatGPT to rewrite her profile and old posts in language considered "masculine" or "agentic," marked by assertiveness. Her reach increased by 415% in just one week, and the story went viral with almost 5,000 reactions.

Megan, however, abandoned the test because she didn't identify with the more aggressive tone of the posts, according to a report in The Guardian.

The experience wasn't the same for everyone. Writer Cass Cooper, specializing in technology and algorithms, changed her gender to "male" and also her race to "white." Instead of an increase, she registered a decrease in reach and engagement. Other Black women reported similar results. For Cooper, the numbers don't necessarily prove a specific bias on LinkedIn, but reflect broader structural inequalities that permeate the digital environment and society.

This discussion occurs at a time when users are pointing to noticeable changes in feed behavior. Content creators claim that, in recent months, there has been a drastic reduction in visibility, prompting informal comparisons between men and women posting the same content. In many of these cases, male profiles received significantly greater reach.

LinkedIn uses an AI system to rank posts in its feed, deciding how to distribute them based on content, as well as the professional identity and skills of the poster. The company states that its algorithms are regularly evaluated, including "gender-related disparity checks."

A LinkedIn spokesperson suggested that the recent drop in reach for certain users is due to a much larger volume of content on the network, adding that there was a 24% increase in comments and a corresponding spike in the number of video uploads in the last quarter.

Participants in the experiment observe that the presence of content with a strong "masculine" aesthetic is growing and altering the traditionally more formal climate of LinkedIn. For Simone, this change is noticeable. The consultant states that the professional network "is becoming a true digital Wild West."

mndophone

 

LEICA

Q3 Monochrom: 8K Video and 60MP

Leica Camera AG has announced the Leica Q3 Monochrom, the second generation of its full-frame compact camera focused exclusively on black and white photography. Available from November 20, 2025, the model is priced at €6,900.

This camera is distinguished by its sensor that forgoes color filters to capture only luminance data. This technical feature promises sharper results, impressive dynamic range, and exceptional tonal depth.

The Leica Q3 Monochrom integrates a 60-megapixel (MP) monochrome BSI sensor. Without the Bayer matrix, the sensor captures pure light, allowing for images with rich textures and low noise, even at high ISO sensitivities ranging from 100 to 200,000.

Triple Resolution technology gives the photographer flexibility, allowing them to choose between DNG or JPEG files with 60, 36, or 18 MP, always utilizing the full sensor area.

The equipment retains the fixed Leica Summilux 28 f/1.7 ASPH lens, known for its optical resolution and brightness. For closer focus, the integrated macro mode allows focusing at a minimum distance of 17 cm.

The focusing system utilizes the hybrid technology of the Q3 platform. The combination of phase detection and contrast with depth of field (DFD) ensures speed and precision in tracking objects.

The Q3 Monochrom applies black and white aesthetics to video, with support for recording in resolutions up to 8K.

As the second monochrome generation in the Q family, the Leica Q3 Monochrom distils photography to its purest form, capturing only brightness data with its dedicated black-and-white sensor. Its 60 MP monochrome sensor with Triple Resolution Technology delivers remarkable sharpness, impressive dynamic range and exceptional tonal depth – no colour filters and no compromising on detail. It captures images at resolutions of 60, 36 and 18 MP across an ISO range from 100 to 200,000, and records video with up to 8K resolution. Alongside the fast Leica Summilux 28 f/1.7 Asph with its wide angle and fixed focal length, it delivers low-noise images rich in nuance and texture – consistently, and even in challenging lighting conditions.

The design of the Leica Q3 Monochrom stays faithful to the contemporary Q family while embracing the unmistakable monochrome aesthetic. Made in Germany, it exemplifies functional beauty in its design and superb craftsmanship in the tactile quality of its finest materials. The all-metal body and lens hood are finished in black, with engravings – such as the “Monochrom” lettering on the top plate – rendered in understated black or grey, while the leatherette covering features a refined, stylish finish. Finally, the intentional absence of the red Leica logo accentuates the camera’s minimalist design.

The high-resolution 5.76 megapixel OLED viewfinder, rapid and precise hybrid autofocus, and tilting touch display highlight the Leica Q3’s impressive performance capabilities. The Q3 Monochrom offers maximum creative freedom to dedicated black-and-white photographers and filmmakers by allowing them to effortlessly switch to macro mode at a close focus distance of 17 cm and choose between automatic or manual control. With its IP52 rating, this durable camera is safeguarded against dust and splashes of water.

A significant innovation in this model is the integration of Content Credentials technology. The camera is the first in the Q family to digitally sign images according to the standards of the Content Authenticity Initiative (CAI), which guarantees verification of the origin and integrity of the files against manipulation.

The camera body, constructed of metal with a matte black finish, deliberately omits the red Leica logo, opting instead for discreet gray and black engravings. The construction is IP52 certified against dust and splashes.

Connectivity with the Leica FOTOS app is handled via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and USB-C. The camera is also "Made for iPhone and iPad" certified, ensuring integration into the Apple ecosystem.

The Leica Q3 Monochrom reinforces the brand's positioning in the monochrome photography niche. By merging a specialized sensor with the performance of the Q3 platform – hybrid focus, 8K video, and advanced connectivity – Leica offers a camera that focuses on the essence of the image and the composition of light and shadow.

The Leica Q3 Monochrom has been available since November 20, 2025, and can be purchased through the brand's official website for a price of 6,900 euros.

mundophone

 

DIGITAL LIFE

AI chatbots are a “disaster” for young people’s mental health, scientists say

Stanford University and Common Sense Media have published a new report with a serious warning: teenagers should not use AI (artificial intelligence) chatbots for mental health advice. The study, dated November 20, 2025 and reported by Education Week, concludes that these tools consistently fail to recognize signs of crisis and do not provide reliable answers.

The research analyzed thousands of interactions with popular chatbots and shows that the technology is unreliable for handling vulnerable situations. According to the Benton Institute for Broadband & Society, the bots even offer generic or harmful advice to young people seeking support for problems such as depression, anxiety, or eating disorders.

The researchers tested whether the chatbots could identify “red flags” of mental health. Despite the companies’ filters for obvious terms, the models failed to detect signs of serious conditions such as psychosis, eating disorders, or obsessive-compulsive behaviors.

Instead of referring users to a professional, bots have often taken on the role of "life coach," trivializing the situation. The Psychiatric Times documented extreme cases where chatbots validated psychotic delusions, encouraged medication discontinuation, and even provided methods for suicide and self-harm.

A critical point is the simulation of empathy by AI chatbots to maximize engagement, which creates a "false therapeutic relationship."

Teenagers, with their developing brains, may interpret the bot's memory and personalization as real understanding. The American Psychological Association (APA) warns that this can lead to social isolation and dangerous emotional dependence.

This data comes at a critical time, marked by tragic cases of teen suicides linked to prolonged interactions with AI and lawsuits against companies in the sector, as reported by APA Services.

A recent study in JAMA Network Open indicates that about 1 in 8 young people already use chatbots for mental health advice. Experts and organizations like the APA are calling for urgent regulation and for AI to always make it clear that it is not a healthcare professional.

The report concludes categorically that, in their current state, AI chatbots pose an unacceptable risk to young people suffering from psychological distress. The inability to distinguish between casual conversation and a request for help, combined with the simulation of intimacy, creates a dangerous trap for a generation already facing an unprecedented mental health crisis, recognized by leading health authorities.

mundophone