[Done] Setting "savestats" pref to false should clear hit

Various discussions related to Adblock Plus development
Locked
Reve
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Jul 14, 2009 12:59 pm

[Done] Setting "savestats" pref to false should clear hit

Post by Reve »

Setting extensions.adblockplus.savestats to false in about:config should clear any already saved stats - I just tested and it doesn't do it when the pref is changed nor on browser startup.

I think this pref should be monitored, and if set to false the existing hits should be cleared. Some less knowledgeable people are going to see this preference, change it, and not realise that their existing history will be saved.
Wladimir Palant

Post by Wladimir Palant »

Not sure about that. The pref is about statistics collected in future, it doesn't apply to the ones already collected. In particular, somebody might want to disable statistics temporarily.
Reve
Posts: 3
Joined: Tue Jul 14, 2009 12:59 pm

Post by Reve »

Wladimir Palant wrote:In particular, somebody might want to disable statistics temporarily.
I'm annoyed with myself that I didn't think of that use case :(

I think, given the privacy issues, that the "Don't collect statistics" pref should really be surfaced visibly in the UI.

Perhaps when this is checked (but not when unchecked) a "yes/no" popup could be shown asking the user if they wish to also clear any existing hit statistics - that would solve this the issue of clearing existing stats from both sides I think, and also make it easier for the users you mentioned to temporarily disable it too.

I think this is a reasonably significant privacy issue and needs the appropriate visibility.

Thanks again for your thoughtful response.
Wladimir Palant

Post by Wladimir Palant »

Yes, this sounds reasonable. This might be something that is actually worth adding a visible option for. Let's move this topic to "Future development" and see what other people say.
Wladimir Palant

Re: [Roadmap] Setting "savestats" pref to false should clear hit

Post by Wladimir Palant »

Added to Adblock Plus 1.4 roadmap, this can be done along with the Preferences dialog redesign.
Wladimir Palant

Re: [Done] Setting "savestats" pref to false should clear hit

Post by Wladimir Palant »

Done: https://hg.adblockplus.org/adblockplus/rev/d81e39328b50

This change will be part of the next development build (will be available in 25 minutes).
Locked