Akismet version 2.2.4 is now available. WordPress users can upgrade using the automatic plugin update feature.
Changed in this version:
- Fixed a key problem affecting the stats feature in WordPress MU
- Provide additional blog information in Akismet API calls
The extra blog information passed to the Akismet API will help Akismet to better adapt and provide results that are tailored to your specific blog.
Support: Please use the Akismet support form to ask questions or report possible problems. Support questions posted in comments will be removed.
Akismet 
Is there a feature for posters to receive notification (email or when posting), in case of their comments are being marked as spam?
No, that would be counterproductive.
Good to hear about the WordPress MU fix part of it.
Thank you very much for the great service.
What Vygantas proposed is dangerous, because can lead to flood of third party users with messages.
“Additionnal blog information in API calls”??
What kind of information? And what about privacy concerns?
The additional information includes the post permalink, blog language, character set, and username of the person reporting a comment as spam or false positive.
Everything submitted to Akismet.com is confidential and will never be provided to third parties.
Thank you so much Akismet Team. I think WP users of 2.7.1 should upgrade till it’s shipped with the upcoming version 2.8.
I still don’t see the need to provide such informations to Askimet.com. What is the advantage for the bloggers and the comment posters compared to the previous, more anonymous way?
What are you doing with this information? Is it kept on the servers, even though never retransmitted to a third party? What warranty do I have you’ll never change your mind about this engagement?
Is there a way to deactivate this new feature?
Guillaume,
Which information is it that concerns you? Like the new version, previous versions of Akismet sent the entire comment post to Akismet for checking – that’s a necessary part of how a service like Akismet works. The additional information includes only general details (language, charset and username), so it puzzles me that you’d find only these additions to be a privacy issue.
The additional information helps to produce more accurate results and improve Akismet’s ability to adapt to your feedback.
The plugin is open source so you can of course see exactly what it’s doing and make changes if you wish. But do bear in mind that providing less information means less accurate results.
Our privacy and legal policies are listed here and here.
Alex, thanks very much for taking the time to post this list of changes in the update, brief as it was. I’ve complained about the past few incremental Akismet upgrades being released with absolutely no information about what was being fixed, as though users didn’t deserve to be informed about what they were installing. So I do appreciate someone communicating this (trac logs don’t count 🙂
Alex,
I guess I thought Askimet sent only a hash of the post and not the entire post. But, come to think of it, posts on a blog are public information anyway. Charset, username and language also. So no need to worry about privacy issues here.
Thanks.
Hi Guillaume,
Glad we got that sorted out. I should’ve made that clear earlier: you’re right, privacy issues with Akismet are rare because most of the comments we check are public.