Today, our information is brutally taken and used by the internet.

It probably has become common that you receive basically monthly mails from Capital One or Discover that encourage you to apply for their credit cards because you are “pre-selected” or “pre-approved”. It also seems very normal and acceptable nowadays for most of us when we see certain ads on our Instagram or Meta accounts just after a few minutes we searched or discussed that product. Most of us think this has become a serious problem, however, essentially, we cannot do anything about it besides saying “this is crazy” or asking the app not to track (does that really work?).

What if one is able to select what one wants to share with the public, on the internet? This project tries to find a balanced way for internet users to share their personal info to the companies, by letting them choose to what extent they are willing to share their information. Then, the users will be able to see various personalized results, suggestions, or ads, based on the algorithm.

Camera filter is chosen as the media we present the project. As stated, algorithms bring a lot of personalized experiences to our lives, but at the same time we do not realize that the data we allow algorithms to use is for personal digital assets and rights, not just some historical records. This camera filter allows people to experience the contrast under different levels of impact of algorithms on a daily basis, thus making everyone aware of the shadow line of data (digital assets) and algorithms.

We defined two categories that algorithms can analyze: personal and environmental.

Environmental analysis includes the user's current location, temperature, humidity, and weather. Personal analysis includes one’s daily schedule, past orders, recent purchases, emotion, recent food consumption, and health condition.

Three levels of permissions are also defined. Take the milk example, in level 1, to suggest the user a cup of coffee, the algorithm is only allowed to analyze this user’s current location, temperature and daily schedule; in level 2, rainfall, humidity, emotion and past orders join the list, so the suggestion that the user received is more specific; in level 3, everything is permitted to be read and analyzed, so the user gets a fully customized cup of coffee. However, it all depends on the user’s selection of different levels.