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
I bet that by trying to play, it reads devices, drivers, versions, volumes. It's not super unique for most people, but for some people it's 100% unique, and for most people, it's just another point of data to check against others to help build a bigger picture.
They can enjoy my fucked up mess of pipewire config I guess. Well, no, because I don't use ali-express