I would like to create a web counter, that counts the application activation (overall - not user specific).

In order to do that, the application should access to some url (www.mysite.com/counter). This process shouldn't be visible for the user.
I will be able to see overall number of activations in site statistics.
My questions are:

1. How to open url in the hidden form?

2. Is it legal? The counter is not user specific and doesn't not track user activities. I would like to have statistics of overall usage.

Thanks.