ALBAWABA - After one user faced issues with Bluetooth connectivity while using the website, he discovered that AliExpress’s website code is using silent audio to track and fingerprint his device without consent – something experts call ‘Audio Fingerprinting’
The code scripts work by tapping a device's audio hardware to generate a signal and measure the device-specific ways it comes back, thereby producing a ‘fingerprint’ of the device without using a single cookie, and all without the user’s knowledge.
The same code is used in browser fingerprinting, whereby device-specific details are collected and combined to recognize a browser over time.
Brave, the company behind the privacy browser, was the first to call out AliExpress in a post on X, saying how their browser blocks these fingerprinting attempts:
The entire process focuses on the tiny differences between each computer’s way of handling the audio signal – differences which are shaped by a computer's processor, sound hardware, operating system, browser, and drivers, therefore creating a ‘fingerprint’.
