A recent investigation found AliExpress running hidden WebAudio code that processes audio even when no sound is playing.
The behavior appears related to audio fingerprinting, using how a device processes audio to help distinguish it from others.
Interestingly, it was discovered when a user noticed AliExpress interfered with their Bluetooth multipoint headphones. Closing the AliExpress tab fixed the issue.
The audio was set to zero gain, so nothing was audible, but the browser was still processing the audio graph.
Why it matters: WebAudio can potentially be used for fingerprinting without an obvious indication to the user, raising privacy and transparency concerns.
Source: https://blog.laserphile.com/2026/08/aliexpress-webpage-keeping-multipoint.html
There's a post from a developer who works on Firefox linked in the comments of that article that suggests this fingerprinting vector has been known and responded to by other major browsers as well:
https://ritter.vg/blog-webaudio_alibaba.html
Thank you for setting my mind a bit more at ease. I'm still glad this was posted because more people need to be made aware of the myriad ways in which they are being tracked. I doubt this will make much of a dent, but every little bit helps, as they say.