Good morning! This week, the privatization of Brazil’s data processing company—no one is (but should be) talking about. Jair Bolsonaro’s stable approval ratings. And the government’s success whipping votes in Congress. And the government’s success whipping votes in Congress. (This newsletter is for platinum and gold subscribers only. Become one now!)
The biggest privatization in Brazil no one is talking about
Economy Minister Paulo Guedes has not been shy about his willingness to privatize every single one of Brazil’s 138 federally-owned companies. And while everyone has talked about the potential selling off of mammoths such as Eletrobras (electricity) or Correios (postal service), one major company that could go private has flown under the radar: Serpro, the Federal Data Processing Service.
Why it matters. Serpro holds a de facto monopoly on developing platforms for government agencies and houses the personal data of every single Brazilian alive. And data has become the world’s most valuable resource.
Serpro. Created to process and store data from the Treasury Department, Serpro currently has three lines of action:
- Collecting and extracting data for private clients (limited to a few types of data);
- Developing software for the government;
- Offering idle processing capacity.
The plan. With a payroll...