Replace personal identifiable information with avatar

mlopp

Has anyone ever replaced a user's information with a non-identifiable avatar in a table on a dashboard?

Here is the use case:
We want to show a snapshot of what was recently watched on our video streaming platform. Our model is that a group buys a subscription, and then all its members can use the platform and watch videos. We have group admins who want to see what their members are watching, at the level of: who is watching, and what video.

However, we don’t want to display the user’s name or email to the admin to keep their privacy. We only want to show if the same person is watching multiple videos, vs many people watching single videos. Thus, we want to display an avatar for them instead (Ex: Google does "anonymous animals" when you are in Google Sheets)

Any ideas on the best way to do this? I could certainly create a dataset of avatars, then use a modular to join them to users in the group, but wondering if there is a better way. Thanks!

ArborRose

There are various ways I could think to tackle this. In one scenario, I wrote a bingo program where I randomly selected from a thousand avatar images that I had created using AI. I stored a few thousand and made sure they balanced out demographically - race, gender, etc. If my data knew the gender and race, it fit the avatar accordingly. Sort of a lengthy process though.

Another way I have done this is with simple silhouette avatars. I only had about a dozen representing genders, and some generics features like long hair, short hair, curly hair, etc.

I have also done it with an avatar generator. Where I let the user select from four panels. A head, torso, legs, and feet to comprise a custom avatar. You can do the same using random numbers from 0 to the number of images you have created for each panel.

I think the easiest approach is to create a set of avatars, and name them all with a number value in the filename. Then use a random number to pull a random image. The more images you have, the less chance of duplication.

Here's my batch file code for renaming all files in a folder. Where it shows prefix, change that to the prefix you want in the filename. In this case, the result would be something like "asian_female_01.png", "asian_female_02.png".

ArborRose

In Domo, if I want to display an image, I call up images that are hosted on a website I control. I shared the code on a link this morning. Read recent discussions and you will find it. I can repost it here if needed.

I've done it by storing files in a database in image format, but that wasn't in Domo.

Or, I store the images in their own native graphic format on a web server in png or jpg. (I prefer png because it allows transparent backgrounds when needed.) This structure would be in a subfolder to my application such as /images. Then I call the images by path to the image file.

After I have associated the image to the user, I can display the image anywhere.

The same method could be used in Domo. You could host image files on a web location and reference the file with the link code I mentioned. I'm currently doing this to display real people's photos on a profile page.

ArborRose

There are various ways I could think to tackle this. In one scenario, I wrote a bingo program where I randomly selected from a thousand avatar images that I had created using AI. I stored a few thousand and made sure they balanced out demographically - race, gender, etc. If my data knew the gender and race, it fit the avatar accordingly. Sort of a lengthy process though.

Another way I have done this is with simple silhouette avatars. I only had about a dozen representing genders, and some generics features like long hair, short hair, curly hair, etc.

I have also done it with an avatar generator. Where I let the user select from four panels. A head, torso, legs, and feet to comprise a custom avatar. You can do the same using random numbers from 0 to the number of images you have created for each panel.

I think the easiest approach is to create a set of avatars, and name them all with a number value in the filename. Then use a random number to pull a random image. The more images you have, the less chance of duplication.

Here's my batch file code for renaming all files in a folder. Where it shows prefix, change that to the prefix you want in the filename. In this case, the result would be something like "asian_female_01.png", "asian_female_02.png".

mlopp

@ArborRose Thanks, that's helpful. What type of file are you using to store the avatar images?

ArborRose

In Domo, if I want to display an image, I call up images that are hosted on a website I control. I shared the code on a link this morning. Read recent discussions and you will find it. I can repost it here if needed.

I've done it by storing files in a database in image format, but that wasn't in Domo.

Or, I store the images in their own native graphic format on a web server in png or jpg. (I prefer png because it allows transparent backgrounds when needed.) This structure would be in a subfolder to my application such as /images. Then I call the images by path to the image file.

After I have associated the image to the user, I can display the image anywhere.

The same method could be used in Domo. You could host image files on a web location and reference the file with the link code I mentioned. I'm currently doing this to display real people's photos on a profile page.