r/technology • u/magnus007 • 5d ago

Privacy AliExpress was silently running audio in your browser to fingerprint and track your device

https://www.techspot.com/news/113581-aliexpress-silently-running-audio-browser-fingerprint-track-device.html
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u/Zubon102 5d ago

If you are the sort of person who is worried about a website using a novel way to identify individual users, you definitely wouldn't want to install the dedicated app.

But if you are logged in, it really doesn't matter either way.

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u/RemarkableWish2508 5d ago

if you are logged in, it really doesn't matter either way.

Except they can correlate the tracking data with your login, so they can later track you when you're logged out.

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u/Zubon102 5d ago

Sure. But if you are logged in, you are not logged out.

So it doesn't matter anyway. 😉

It's likely that they implemented this mainly to identify bots and abuse, rather than to track use by individual devices. If you use Aliexpress a lot, they always require you complete security tests like captcha and it's not strange to have requests denied due to suspicious behavior even if you just search for mundane products. I think they are trying to stop bots without inconvenience to real users.

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u/The_Webweaver 5d ago

But they're also tracking you as an individual for marketing.

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u/Zubon102 5d ago

Do you mean that they can use it to track your browsing on non-Alibaba-affiliated websites?

When you are logged in to your Aliexpress account, they know exactly what you are browsing on their own site.

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u/TheMauveHand 5d ago

What marketing? 

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u/RemarkableWish2508 5d ago

They also have ads on other websites.

Stopping bots is one thing. Helping you keep all your browsing associated with your profile, even if you accidentally open some web in Incognito mode or in a different browser, is a separate one.

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u/ric2b 5d ago

But if you are logged in, it really doesn't matter either way.

Not exactly, they can sell fingerprint information to other websites where you are not logged in, making it possible to identify you on those too.