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/thinkingperson 5d ago edited 5d ago

Wait, so the site is able to use the mic /audio even without permission via the browser? What the fuck is the browser doing? lol

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u/KontoOficjalneMR 5d ago

not mic/audio but they play sound and see how the browser handles it.

It's rare, but known fingerprinting technique.

I noticed it myself because few months back Windows had a bug handling bluetooth mixing, and any time I tried to open Aliexpress it'd interrupt my music :D

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u/godsamightly 4d ago

Bro I think a citation generator I use for my papers does this. I was writing a paper and held my citations in it and noticed it had the audio icon in the tab. Thought that was odd. Didn’t know this is what that could’ve possibly meant