AliExpress Got Caught Using Inaudible Sound To Track Users
Uh-oh, e-commerce giant AliExpress has been caught running hidden, silent audio processes inside visitors' browsers to generate unique device tracking profiles without user consent.
This naughty deed was uncovered after software developer Matt Callaghan investigated why his multipoint Bluetooth headphones inexplicably stopped playing music from his phone whenever an AliExpress tab sat open on his computer. Callaghan discovered that loading the retail platform's homepage executed highly obfuscated JavaScript files—collina.js and fireyejs.js—associated with Alibaba's browser security and anti-fraud infrastructure.
Rather than hijacking microphones, these scripts leverage the Web Audio API to build an internal audio-processing graph. According to Callaghan's diagnosis, the system uses a sawtooth oscillator to generate a precise waveform, passes it through an analyzer, and evaluates the resulting frequency data to measure the tiny mathematical variations in how a given browser, central processing unit, and audio driver process sound signals. Because these hardware and software micro-differences are virtually unique...
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