Lagos-based startup, Ghostmode, has launched a product that lets users make and receive calls while retaining anonymity and privacy — but not in anyway you would have thought.
Ghostmode generates a temporary (eight digit) phone number that can be used to make and receive calls. The application works by ‘mapping’ a temporary number onto the GSM number of users, hence, all incoming/outgoing calls are redirected to their native number which remains hidden.
Users log on to the Ghostmode’s website and enter few – hardly personal – details to register, and on completion, an eight-digit number is generated to be used, according to Ghostmode, within 24 hours.
“No need to purchase a new mobile device, or a SIM card. Ghost servers will automatically redirect all GhostMode calls to your current mobile number,” Ghostmode says.
As at the time of writing this, though, the temporary number I copped from the website don’t work as advertised. You can neither receive nor make calls using the numbers. I am also still trying to figure a use case for this product that is neither dodgy nor creepy.
Ghostmode – the startup – was founded by Ifeanyi Adirika and the webapp – the one that generates the numbers – was developed by Michael Osakede and Rodney Jackson Cole, ex-CTO at Tranzit/TaxiPixi, who left the taxi e-hailing startup last September to pursue further learning.
Image: Ghostmode
