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AliExpress runs silent WebAudio fingerprinting that breaks Bluetooth multipoint

blog.laserphile.com

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Re: AliExpress runs silent WebAudio fingerprinting that breaks Bluetooth multipoint

#151
post #145

This sounds like a GDPR issue no? Couldn't they be taken to the EU!

Yes. In this case probably not fineeprinting is not allowed because not strictly necessary (cookie law) and therefore needs consent from user.

Re: AliExpress runs silent WebAudio fingerprinting that breaks Bluetooth multipoint

#152
post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Perhaps I can be blamed for using windows That would be unreasonable, I argue. No one should have to worry about the security of their devices and data privacy based on which OS they use. Whilst it can be argued that different OSs serve different needs, privacy and security should not be debatable. In fact, most countries have dedicated legislation for this; whether it's just, applied correctly, or serves the publi…

I am pretty sure my phone is listening. The ads I see this week are about topics I discussed last week. Week for week. Stupid thing is that I need the phone to have near by as self-employed electrician. Clients want to communicate after regular office hours. Since the phone is rigged why computer shouldn’t?

[deleted]

Re: AliExpress runs silent WebAudio fingerprinting that breaks Bluetooth multipoint

#153

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Soundd like a nightmare to build legitimate apps if you for example are building an app that uses the camera but you can’t in anyway tell that using the camera fails (because user had denied the permission 6 months ago and has no memory of it) and instead of being able to give a helpful error you are just ending up with I am guessing fake images (maybe just a black screen).

The image could contain a message that it is disabled.

Then it is detectable. Those permissions should have a third option alongside allow and block - spoof.

Re: AliExpress runs silent WebAudio fingerprinting that breaks Bluetooth multipoint

#156
post #118

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not sure if they still do, but a couple years ago prices in the app were lower than on the website. And they promoted installing it to save money.

They also don't give you a proper tracking number. The only way to track your shipment is in the app.

Depends on the shipping company, and likely on your location. I get tracking numbers for most but not all shipments

Re: AliExpress runs silent WebAudio fingerprinting that breaks Bluetooth multipoint

#157
I wish such shenanigans would simply trigger the little speaker icon most browser display on tabs these days.

Given that they don't (at least in my experience), I'm assuming "playing silent audio" is a sufficiently common thing for websites to do to have motivated browsers into doing the slightly more complicated thing of actually analyzing audio streams for content...

Now I wonder, does this also allow websites to continue running in the background on mobile browsers? Playing media is one of the very few things that can convince iOS Safari to keep a tab running indefinitely, in my experience.

Re: AliExpress runs silent WebAudio fingerprinting that breaks Bluetooth multipoint

#158

That could explain the multipoint problems I've had in the last weeks, where audio would get "stuck" to one of my devices even when (apparently) nothing is playing.

I've had these issues on and off as early as 10 years ago when I got my first multipoint headphones.

Re: AliExpress runs silent WebAudio fingerprinting that breaks Bluetooth multipoint

#159
Somebody (Mozilla?) should make a browser that just proactively blocks shit like this

I’m sure some Adblock addon could do it but at the browser level would be preferred. A browser vendor that just proactively does security and “correctness” tweaks to live sites would actually be in my interests as a user

Re: AliExpress runs silent WebAudio fingerprinting that breaks Bluetooth multipoint

#160

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You should make that obvious in some way like using “TLDR”. I assume many people, like me, would attempt to parse your comment as a comment on the article, after all it’s in the comment section, and read that way it’s very confusing lol.

Sorry, this is my first post to HN and in the submission it looked like the description text i added would be part of the post header.

I was just about to highlight this particular HN quirk. I suppose a lot of people here only ever comment (or submit URLs without any text of their own) and aren't familiar with it.
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