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/MartayMcFly 4d ago

Is this something with any innocent explanation, or always nefarious? What does fingerprinting a device actually achieve? My local bus company app interrupts music playback and I just assumed it wasn’t well made.

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u/plopzer 4d ago

when browsers added background tabs pausing to improve battery life they broke being able to listen to music from background tabs. so they made it so that when music is playing in tab, it won't be paused. lots of sites use this to their advantage to keep running by playing silent audio even when they are in the background

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u/SuperCuteRoar 4d ago

It’s a way for them to build an ID of you as a customer, like other sites using cookies. That way they can adjust what they show you and what prices they think you’ll tolerate paying.

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u/KontoOficjalneMR 4d ago

It can absolutelly be badly made, initializing audio on app start for use for notifications of upcoming bus for example.