Chinese e‑commerce giant AliExpress has been discovered employing an outdated WebAudio technique that sends inaudible sound waves to browsers for fingerprinting. The method, invisible to users, still poses serious privacy concerns.

  • AliExpress deployed WebAudio‑based fingerprinting using silent sound.
  • Researcher Matthew Callaghan noticed his headphones mute when the site loaded.
  • The technique is invisible to users but detectable by browsers.

Background

Chinese retailer AliExpress was caught using an obsolete metric that measures inaudible sounds sent to browsers, effectively fingerprinting visitors. The discovery came when researcher Matthew Callaghan observed that his Bluetooth headphones stopped playing audio from his phone each time he opened the AliExpress homepage.

Technical Details

Callaghan uncovered two heavily obfuscated scripts that generated a graph analyzing each browser’s WebAudio readings. The graph acted as an oscillator measuring sawtooth waves, a common pattern in digital audio output. By capturing these waveforms, the site could create a unique audio fingerprint for each device.

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Historical Background

Audio‑based fingerprinting was first proposed in the early 2010s as researchers demonstrated that browsers could be distinguished by their audio processing quirks. While major browsers later introduced mitigations, some high‑traffic sites continue to exploit the loophole for covert tracking.

Why This Matters

BozokMedia analysis shows that despite widespread awareness, legacy tracking scripts remain active on high‑traffic commercial sites, exposing millions of users to covert profiling and potentially violating data‑protection regulations worldwide.

“Audio fingerprinting is a sophisticated privacy hack that harvests data without user consent.” – Cyber‑security analyst Dr. Lina Patel
Did You Know?: The WebAudio API was originally designed for interactive music and gaming, not for surveillance.

Frequently Asked Questions

Question 1: Can users disable this tracking from browser settings?

Answer: Some browsers offer extensions that block or limit the AudioContext API, but the default settings usually allow it, making the technique hard to avoid for average users.

Question 2: Will AliExpress respond to these allegations?

Answer: No official statement has been released yet, but regulatory scrutiny could force the platform to cease the practice.