A tunable optical filter includes a thin film waveguide and a ring surrounding the thin film waveguide. The method and apparatus includes the activities of determining the level of privacy associated with at least a portion of the data stored in the database and receiving query data, from a querier, for use in performing a convolution over the data stored in the database. In one embodiment, the polymer are formed of highly strained monomers which themselves comprise two cyclic moieties joined to one another via an alkyl chain.