AliExpress was caught fingerprinting visitors by sending inaudible audio waveforms to browsers, a technique that analyzes how each browser renders WebAudio signals to create unique identifiers. Researcher Matthew Callaghan discovered the tracking accidentally when it interfered with his Bluetooth multipoint headphones after loading the site.
Background
Browser fingerprinting has become a widespread tracking technique used by advertisers and platforms to identify users without cookies. Audio-based fingerprinting specifically exploits differences in how browsers process WebAudio API signals.
- Source
- Ars Technica
- Published
- Aug 25, 2026 at 03:19 AM
- Score
- 7.0 / 10