As a way of protecting data by ensuring that information is not shared with advertisers or fraudsters, Safaricom might soon be adding a feature that will hide contact details when making lipa na M-PESA transactions. This new feature is similar to what banks usually do as they avoid revealing their clients’ details by blocking account numbers during transactions. There has recently been a scandal where it was revealed that certain companies have been sharing data with advertisers and other third parties without consent. This is an action that is classified as an offence by the 2019 data protection law. More about the report. This is a problem that has been previously reported to have been violated by a fifth of Kenyan companies. This was revealed by a survey by the consultancy Ernst & Young (EY). The report showed that 41% of firms transferred their clients’ data to third-party service providers. More than half of these companies were found to have done this without seeking any approval from those customers. Speaking to Business Daily, an undisclosed Safaricom executive revealed this saying: ” The plan is to hide your number where it will display say the first two or three numbers and the last ones and block out the middle, just the way banks do.” The risk of having data breaches means that more people are exposed to financial fraud and having identities clones and also risk their contacts being cloned. Users are usually also exposed to having their identities clones with their contacts so wide open to everyone. This is where cases of financial fraud have seemed to thrive in the recent past. If this new feature will be implemented it will definitely reduce data fraud and will be a safer way to transact money.
