To prevent personal information from being sold to advertising or fraudsters, Safaricom will implement a feature that blocks customer contact details when making payments through Lipa na M-Pesa.
The telecom will only show the first and final few digits of a phone number, essentially masking the customer’s contact information.
This is similar to the methodology used by banks when providing account numbers to prevent releasing personal information about their customers.
People who pay for goods and services now leave their phone numbers and names with tens of thousands of merchants.
Merchants exploit personal information such as phone numbers and purchasing history to send unsolicited advertisements via text texts.
In violation of the data protection law passed in 2019 to protect privacy, the information can potentially be sold to third parties without consent.
Safaricom is committed to limiting third-party usage of personal information gathered through Lipa na M-Pesa transactions.
“The aim is to mask your number so that it only shows the first two or three numbers and the last ones, much like banks do,” said a Safaricom executive who did not want to be identified because the information is private.
Lipa na M-Pesa, which began operations in June 2013, has aggressively recruited merchants around the country, including both major and small companies.
Safaricom’s decision to limit third-party use of customers’ data comes after it was revealed that more than a fifth of Kenyan businesses shared customers’ financial and personal information without their consent.
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