M-Pesa contact masking kicks off in Safaricom privacy drive

Safaricom will from next Tuesday begin masking phone numbers in person-to-person M-Pesa transactions, rolling out a long-delayed privacy feature approved by the Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) to curb exposure of customer data.

Under the new system, recipients will only see partial details including two names and a masked phone number, marking a shift toward limiting the amount of personal information shared during routine mobile money transfers.