Common questions about NameMask, how it protects names, and how the project stays free. Still stuck? The tool itself lives on the home page.
Anyone who wants to use an AI tool without handing over real names. Teachers protecting students and families, teams keeping coworker or client names private, writers who do not want character names leaking, or anyone drafting something personal. The roster is simply the list of names you want masked. It does not care who they are.
NameMask is free and always will be. It shows no ads, has no accounts, and collects nothing, so there is no revenue built into it at all. It stays alive on donations. If it saved you time or gave you peace of mind, a small tip on Ko-fi genuinely keeps the project going and the domain paid for. There is a link in the footer.
No. There is no network code at all. Masking, unmasking, and your roster all happen in your browser, on your device. You can turn Wi-Fi off and everything still works.
You can absolutely find-and-replace by hand, but it is easy to miss one, and you lose the ability to put the real names back afterward. NameMask catches every name on your roster at once, including first names and last names on their own, and it can unmask the AI's reply so the names come back exactly where they belong.
In your browser's local storage, on this computer only. It is not synced or uploaded. Clearing your browser data or using a different browser or profile starts fresh.
NameMask is a local tool, so the names you add never leave your machine, which is exactly what makes it useful for sensitive settings. That said, NameMask is a helper, not a compliance product or legal guarantee. You are still responsible for following your own organization's rules. Always review masked text before you send it, and review the AI's output before you share it.
An email or phone tied to a person on your roster masks to their placeholder, like [Name 1], and unmasks correctly. A loose one that appears in your text but is not tied to anyone is masked one way only, and cannot be unmasked, because the original is never stored anywhere.
Yes. If the roster has a full name, either part, first or last, is caught automatically. For nicknames or alternate spellings, add them to that person's variants. Every variant maps back to the same placeholder.
The standalone web page works anywhere a browser does, even offline, with no install. The browser extension needs permission to be installed, which on managed devices is controlled by your IT admin. If extensions are locked down, use the web page instead.
No. It only looks at the text box you are actively typing in, compares it against your local roster to show a count, and masks on request. Nothing you type is logged, stored, or transmitted. You can also turn the extension off entirely, or per site, from its toolbar menu.
The starter roster uses well-known scientists and public figures as stand-ins, so nothing ever ships with real names from your life. Delete them and add your own.
Yes. It is a small, local tool with no hidden network activity. Everything happens in the page you are looking at. If you are technical, you can open your browser's developer tools and confirm it makes no outbound requests.