Send hit-stats of users

[dutchmega]

Adblock Plus keeps track of the number of hits that each filters get.
Wouldn't it be handy if these statictics would be send to some central place or the subscription-creator. It would create instantly a list of filters that aren't used (much).

Subscription-creators could use this to remove unneeded filters.

[PETER]

Or you could use it, to track users and to control which sites they visit how often.

Because of these privacy issues I am strictly against it!

[IceDogg]

Or at the very least have it optional with the default being OFF.

[sheepy]

Yes this would be a nice function to have.

However I wonder whether it's more a feel good feature that makes list maintainers happy, because I don't really think optimisations made possible by such a feature would help much, espcially now that ABP works quite effectivelly on large lists.

Anyway even if its really is a feel good feature, it's one that is good to have.

[NJH]

It might help with pruning unused filters but that depends on a lot of individual surfing habits. It is dangerous as a tool to spot good filters as a filter such as "http" will get a lot of hits but not be very effective! Overall, I am not sure the feature will have much benefit.

[Wladimir Palant]

I thought about having this feature (opt-in, something like "help us develop better filters", with statements that it isn't possible to deduce anything about your browsing habits from the data). But that's certainly not something that will come any time soon.

Note also that this data is useless if the user is using multiple subscriptions.

[IceDogg]

NJH, makes a good point too. I hadn't thought of that. And I assume there is no way to determine FP's.

[sheepy]

No it certainly won't tell friends from foes.

Hey, how about a feature that help users to report false positives? Just like Firefox's report broken website?

[Wladimir Palant]

@sheepy: This is also something in my long-term plans (dutchblock already has this).