A black-owned Stellenbosch-based company, dvelopit, has developed an SMS system to mask the personal details of people advertising in the classified sections of newspapers and other publications.
The service, called adpermit, allows a seller of goods or services in a classified advertisement to have a reference number that prospective customers can SMS, rather than displaying contact details such as a home telephone number, says Andrew Cardoza, founder and manager of the company.
Cardoza says a prospective buyer will send an SMS to that reference number to find out if the goods are still available and, if so, the seller will send more specific contact details via SMS.
The buyer is charged R1.50 per SMS and once the goods are sold, the seller sends an SMS to adpermit, at a cost of R1.50, to cancel the reference number.
"It is designed to protect a seller`s contact details as these are not displayed in the publication for the world to see. Once the goods have been sold, or are no longer available, then a prospective buyer is immediately aware and the seller is no longer bothered for some time after the sale," Cardoza says.
The service will be launched in several community, local and national newspapers in the next few months, he says.
Cardoza says he is in discussions with a number of large media companies for them to start using the system.
"The response from them has been very positive, but they have had a few concerns such as how they would integrate it into their existing software and accounting systems," he says.
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