Waziri Mayai Wa Maradhi
JF-Expert Member
- Jan 28, 2026
- 409
- 98
Safaricom received approval from CBK to hide customers’ phone numbers when they pay using M-Pesa to Till and Pay Bill numbers.
The decision was made to improve customer privacy and protect users’ personal data during transactions.
This aligns M-Pesa with Kenya’s Data Protection Act 2019, which requires that personal data collected during any transaction be limited strictly to what is necessary
Under the new system, merchants will still receive a payment notification; however, instead of seeing your full number, they will see a masked version, something like 0722XXXXXX. The payment goes through exactly as before; what changes is how much of your personal data travels with it.
Most of these apps that force us to give access to calls and messages have been using the opportunity to mine numbers and sell to marketing agencies.
The decision was made to improve customer privacy and protect users’ personal data during transactions.
This aligns M-Pesa with Kenya’s Data Protection Act 2019, which requires that personal data collected during any transaction be limited strictly to what is necessary
Under the new system, merchants will still receive a payment notification; however, instead of seeing your full number, they will see a masked version, something like 0722XXXXXX. The payment goes through exactly as before; what changes is how much of your personal data travels with it.
Most of these apps that force us to give access to calls and messages have been using the opportunity to mine numbers and sell to marketing agencies.