Vodacom has reversed a software glitch that led to some subscribers’ phone numbers being leaked, it said on Friday.

The mobile network recently ran a software update to increase security on certain opt-in services and facilities allowing customers to charge purchases to their phone bill, spokesman Richard Boorman said.

“In these specific instances, we provide the cellphone number to the app store or service provider in order that the service can be charged.

“A bug has been identified in this update which means that in some cases the cellphone number and handset unique identifier number were sporadically visible to other websites.”

When Vodacom became aware of the problem it reversed the software update and was now developing a solution.

“We take customer privacy issues extremely seriously and are putting together a comprehensive response to ensure that there is not a recurrence of this incident,” Boorman said.

“I can categorically state that Vodacom does not sell customer information to third parties and at no point do we disclose personal information such as customer names, billing information or anything else along these lines.” — Sapa