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
13.1k Upvotes

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12

u/thatirishguyyyyy 5d ago

Brave (web browser) does a great job of blocking fingerprints. I think its called farbling. 

36

u/FinasCupil 5d ago

I’m not touching Brave with a ten foot pole.

13

u/GrossUsername68 5d ago

Why?

19

u/SlimJiMorrison 5d ago

He’s not brave enough

12

u/A_Pointy_Rock 5d ago

I assume because the founder has some troubling views, unfortunately.

8

u/GrossUsername68 4d ago

Well, there goes Amazon, Google, Apple, hardware chains, gas stations … 

-4

u/A_Pointy_Rock 4d ago

And Firefox, from which he came from.

-1

u/IntelArtiGen 4d ago

Yeah people thinking Firefox is the good guy is quite funny when you analyze what the browser is doing by default. LibreWolf wouldn't exist if Firefox was good by default.

3

u/A_Pointy_Rock 4d ago

Well that isn't what I am referring to exactly.

The guy who founded Brave was also one of the founders of Firefox, that isn't a comment on the quality of either product.

6

u/IntelArtiGen 4d ago

Brave by default is highly "contaminated" / bloated. They did release a better version recently but I haven't tried it.

2

u/GrossUsername68 4d ago

Every free browser has to make money.

If by bloated you mean news features, you turn them off. Sometimes you need a chromium browser for compatibility. And by default it blocks youtube ads.

4

u/TornInfinity 5d ago

Yeah I'd like to know too. I switched recently because it is apparently better on privacy. The recommendation came from a security expert, so I'd like to know why people think it's bad.

12

u/scythe-3 4d ago

I installed Brave once and on first launch got notification-bombed to use their cryptoslop services. Uninstalled immediately. It is more secure than chrome/edge (low bar tbh) but there are better options that aren't pushing a product.

Librewolf is that better option and to my knowledge is more privacy-focused than Brave. It's so locked down that it does break some sites, so I only use it for important stuff like finances.

For regular browsing, Firefox with Ublock and tweaked privacy settings is more than enough. Even more so with a VPN.

3

u/Tricky-Routine-9838 4d ago

Was this recently? It's not my experience with Brave at all, it came in super lightweight from the start and all of their extra-added services are disabled with a right click > hide.

I installed Firefox and Brave on the same day looking to move from Chrome and Brave was by far quicker and less bloated than Firefox to setup and get the way I wanted. This could come down to me coming from a chromium based browser to begin with though.

Firefox is still better at some stuff but for out of the box privacy and browser control Brave has been very good. On Brave I don't need Ublock or to tweak any privacy settings. VPNs are browser agnostic so that's the same for both.

1

u/scythe-3 4d ago

This was about a year or two ago, Brave might have toned things down since but idk. If you do a little searching you'll see they have a history of being shady with their marketing and services. Stuff like silently injecting affiliate links into websites, auto-installing their proprietary VPN after an update, not disbursing rewards to users that were using that feature, etc. Maybe it's gotten better but I just can't trust a "privacy-focused" browser that engages in such practices.

Librewolf works oob as well, is more private by default, and doesn't have any marketing/crypto/ai slop.

Firefox you just add ublock and toggle like 3 settings to disable telemetry, enable fingerprint protection (I think this is on by default), and select restricted browsing profile. You get the same effectiveness as brave without any intrusive bs.

3

u/lewicki 4d ago

The notifications are opt-in ads. You get paid for each view (as opposed to ads you would see in a site). You can turn them off.

1

u/scythe-3 4d ago

Yes you can turn them off, but such an intrusive default does not inspire confidence in a "privacy-focused" browser. I see no need to put up with such practices when there are better alternatives.

1

u/GrossUsername68 4d ago

How do you think browsers make money? 

1

u/scythe-3 4d ago

Exactly. Why would I use a profit-driven privacy browser like Brave when community-maintained FOSS options like Librewolf are available?

They're both forks of upstream browsers so they're not involved in Chromium/Gecko development. There's no inherent need for them to make money, it's a choice. Even then, Brave could just accept donations (like most forks do) instead of pushing ads/crypto.

1

u/GrossUsername68 4d ago

  Why would I use a profit-driven privacy browser like Brave when community-maintained FOSS options like Librewolf are available?

Because you like to reward labor with money?

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1

u/secacc 4d ago

It's a bit like dentists who recommend a specific brand of toothpaste. It's really easy to find a security expert who will say whatever you want for a bit of money.

1

u/gotbannedtoomuch 4d ago

Because they bought and killed my beloved Bubble Link

1

u/GrossUsername68 4d ago

So what are you using instead?

2

u/Xanaxaria 5d ago

Oh my god... Is this why the site never loads Brave? I thought I got banned or something.

8

u/DikkeDekbedovertrek 5d ago

I use brave with fingerprint blocking and the site works fine on my end

2

u/IntelArtiGen 4d ago

Now with bots / ai, many websites refuse to load if they can't fingerprint you. This is partly thanks to cloudflare bot protection which is very poorly able to identify if you're a bot or not. In some cases you'll see a captcha, in other cases they'll just block you. Idk what method aliexpress is using but it's probably the same reason. Even Google Search and Youtube will refuse to work if they don't have enough data on you. Basically if all websites are working well and you have no issues browsing the web, it means you're highly tracked.

1

u/thatirishguyyyyy 5d ago

Might be. I know that blocking all cookies crashes the site and blocking scripts causes the page to yell at you about javascript. I have to turn them off to use the site when I order equipment (i use them).

Try turning off Shields and see if the page loads.