We think you should get to keep
being a person online.
Masquerade is a privacy-by-default identity tool for the web, built and run by one person under Webaze BV, a registered Belgian company. We believe pseudonymity is a civic skill, not a technical loophole, and we'd like to give it back.
A very small, very stubborn idea.
Chapter 01 · The breach
Chapter 02 · The realization
Chapter 03 · Today
In early 2026, a gym chain got hacked. Cedric's data was in the breach — and so was his parents'. Name, email, phone number. The usual.
He wasn't especially rattled by the hack itself. Breaches happen. What he couldn't stop thinking about was what comes after: the phishing calls. The ones that open with "Hello, I'm calling about your account" — and work exactly because the caller already has your data.
Then a small, obvious thought arrived: what if the gym chain had only ever had a unique alias — an email address that existed nowhere else? Any message claiming to be from them that didn't arrive at that alias would immediately stand out. Any caller who couldn't name the exact address the membership confirmation went to would give themselves away. Unique data. Known breach. Hang up.
“I'm pretty privacy-minded — I wanted a tool that would lie about my identity online. Not for malicious reasons, purely because my privacy matters.”
Cedric Gordon · founder
The first version was rough: a browser extension and a mail relay, built over many evenings. It generated a persona, handed over an alias, and got out of the way. The core worked, and the architecture it proved is still the one Masquerade runs on today.
It's a more considered product now: incorporated as Webaze BV, end-to-end encrypted, GDPR-first. The pitch hasn't changed. You should get to be someone else on the internet. Not because you have something to hide, but because not everything you do is anyone else's business. One caveat: keep your real name where a contract or insurance requires it. Masquerade handles the rest.
Six things we will not change our minds about.
Nailed to the door. We rewrite them only when someone makes a case we can't argue with. So far, no one has.
Privacy is the default, not the upgrade.
If the free version of the product doesn't protect you, the product isn't protecting you. Every tier of Masquerade is private. Paying just unlocks capacity.
Your data is yours. Even from us.
Personas, aliases, every byte: exportable as JSON at any time. Leave with everything you came with. We'll hold the door.
Quiet software, loud values.
We don't nag, we don't upsell mid-flow, we don't A/B test sentiment on you. The product stays out of your way. The manifesto does the talking.
We eat our own aliases.
Masquerade signs up to third-party services through a mask. If the product isn't good enough to trust, it isn't good enough to ship.
Encrypted before it leaves your device.
Your personas and mail are encrypted in your browser, with a key derived from a password we never receive. We store ciphertext, not secrets. Lose the password and even we can't recover it: there's no backdoor, because there's nowhere to put one.
One person, building with care.
Solo and independent. Small means caring about the details. Independent means meaning what we say. No investors telling us to grow at all costs.
Early days, honestly told.
A gym chain is hacked. Cedric's data is in it — name, email, phone number. An obvious thought arrives: what if they'd never had the real thing?
First masks in the wild. Built in evenings until it was something Cedric would actually trust himself.
Full rebrand, redesigned extension, JSON export. Early access open.
One founder,
one mask shown.
Built and shipped by one person in Kortrijk. More will join as the product grows, but for now, it's just Cedric.
Builds and runs Masquerade end to end: product, relay, and the privacy requests, which he answers personally. Started it after a data breach made one thing obvious: that showing up as the same person everywhere is the actual problem. Believes a privacy company should be auditable, not just trustworthy.
Not hiring yet,
but thinking about it.
Masquerade is early. When the time comes, we'll hire slowly and deliberately. People who care about privacy as much as the craft. If that sounds like you, say hello now.
jobs@email.masquerade.broker →No open positions right now. We're building the product first. When we do hire, we'll post here, and we'll mean it.
The web knows too much about you.
Introduce it to someone else.
Masquerade is free to start. No credit card. Install the extension, sign up somewhere, watch a different you appear.
Chrome · Firefox · Edge · Safari coming soon