alt Hacker News> It is common to be asked for your CPF for trivial things like purchasing anything on a drugstore
I always point out how insane this is to my Brazilian friends but then I, as a foreigner, have to hand over my passport number instead for the same inane things. I ended up getting a Brazilian eSim and now get spam calls all day.
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You are never forced to provide your CPF for trivial things, it's completely optional and it's usually used for convenience (easier to get a refund later, for example) and even for people to get some tax discounts in some States. I've never seen anyone showing a passport in Brazil. Though I'm Brazilian, my CPF had been cancelled after more than 10 years I didn't use it (since I haven't lived there in more than 20 years) but that never caused me any inconvenience.
Fun fact: CPF was accepted as identification to vote for President!
Why is it insane? You can't do much with the just the CPF number in Brazil, it is not the same as SSN, a CPF is solely for identification.