What does “fofoca” mean in Brazilian Portuguese?

Fofoca is the classic Brazilian word for gossip — the juicy story people whisper about someone else. A screen-protector ad plays on that meaning: its privacy filter narrows the viewing angle “pra salvar as suas fofocas” — “to save your gossip,” meaning to keep nosy seatmates from reading your messages. The pun works because fofoca isn’t really about the phone at all; it’s about protecting whatever business you don’t want strangers seeing.

Fofoca comes from the verb fofocar, “to gossip,” and a fofoqueiro/fofoqueira is the person who can’t stop spreading it — a very common label for the office or family gossip. The ad’s exact wording is proteção de privacidade no ângulo de 28 graus (“privacy protection at a 28-degree angle”) — a real feature (angle-limiting privacy film), dressed up in slang for the pitch.