Inaudible sounds used to fingerprint browsers catch AliExpress red-handed
Chinese retailer AliExpress has been caught fingerprinting visitors after one of the metrics—an outdated technique that measures inaudible sounds it sends to browsers—impeded a researcher’s ability to use his bluetooth headphones.
Chinese retailer AliExpress has been caught fingerprinting visitors after one of the metrics—an outdated technique that measures inaudible sounds it sends to browsers—impeded a researcher’s ability to use his bluetooth headphones.
The short version
- Researcher Matthew Callaghan said he stumbled on the stealthy tracking by mistake.
- After loading the AliExpress homepage, audio from his phone stopped playing over his multipoint headphones, which accept connections from more than one device at a time.
- He set the headphones to play sounds from his phone except when his PC was producing audio.
What happened
Each time he loaded AliExpress, the phone audio stopped. Each time he closed the tab the site was loaded into, the phone was once again audible.
Why it matters
While investigating the odd behavior, Callaghan said he found two highly obfuscated scripts.
Summary by Nerd News Network. Read the full article at Ars Technica via the links above and below.