diff --git a/src/utilities/ntrace/TracePluginImpl.cpp b/src/utilities/ntrace/TracePluginImpl.cpp
index 1225f6f703..aa278aa002 100644
--- a/src/utilities/ntrace/TracePluginImpl.cpp
+++ b/src/utilities/ntrace/TracePluginImpl.cpp
@@ -167,7 +167,7 @@ TracePluginImpl::TracePluginImpl(const TracePluginConfig &configuration, TraceIn
 	{
 		try
 		{
-			string filter(config.include_filter);
+			string filter(config.exclude_filter);
 			ISC_systemToUtf8(filter);
 
 			exclude_matcher = new SimilarToMatcher<UCHAR, UpcaseConverter<> >(