AliExpress was silently running audio in your browser to fingerprint and track your device
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A hot potato: As cookies become a less reliable way to track people online, AliExpress may be showing how far companies will go to fill that gap. Researchers found code on the site's homepage that ran silent audio processes in the browser. Tied to Alibaba's security systems, the scripts tap a device's own audio hardware to generate a signal and measure the tiny, device-specific ways it comes back – producing something close to a fingerprint that doesn't need a single cookie to work. It's the kind of tracking a user would likely never notice.
The issue only surfaced after a developer had trouble using multipoint Bluetooth headphones while an AliExpress tab was open: the headphones wouldn't switch properly from the computer to a phone. Once the tab was closed, the problem disappeared.
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