"Safaricom to hide identity of Lipa na M-Pesa users"

Safaricom will introduce a feature blocking customer contact details when making payments through Lipa na M-Pesa to curb personal information being traded to advertisers or fraudsters. The telco will only display the first and last few digits of a phone number, blocking the middle and effectively hiding the contact of the customer.

This is akin to the model banks use when sending account numbers to avoid disclosing details of their clients. At present, people paying for goods and services leave their numbers and names with thousands of merchants.