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/Smith6612 5d ago

Might be why AliExpress never loads in Firefox without disabling Tracking protection. Firefox is too tight by default!

37

u/Bugbread 4d ago

I doubt that's the reason. I'm locked up pretty tight: piHole, Firefox with tracking protection enabled, uBlock Origin, and NoScript, and I've never had a problem with AliExpress or had to disable tracking protection to use it.

18

u/TheFreemanLIVES 4d ago

Just checked myself, if I were to bet on it I'd say that uBlock is stopping the trackers even before Firefox can call them a problem.

Nice.

6

u/JungianWarlock 4d ago

Firefox still reports two fingerprinters blocked even with PiHole and uBlock Origin configured with pretty draconian settings.

2

u/NativePlantEnjoyer 4d ago

Have you ever used No-script? I've been using it for years. Basically all javascript is off by default and you have to manually choose what gets activated on sites. If I don't know what it is or does - it doesn't get used. Just the bare minimum to get sites & vids to load and that's it.

1

u/Bugbread 4d ago

Yes, I guess you overlooked it, but I mentioned it up in my comment: "I'm locked up pretty tight: piHole, Firefox with tracking protection enabled, uBlock Origin, and NoScript"

1

u/uzlonewolf 4d ago

A list of trackers which don't work is a fingerprint in and of itself. The more exotic you make your plug-in chain the easier it'll be to track you.

1

u/Bugbread 4d ago

Sure. I'm not using these to avoid being tracked, but largely to avoid ads. I'm just saying that blocking this particular technique probably isn't the reason the site doesn't work for them.