AliExpress Silent WebAudio Fingerprinting Script Disrupts Bluetooth Multipoint Devices
Web performance researchers have identified an unintended side effect of background bot-detection scripts on e-commerce giant AliExpress: silent WebAudio API fingerprinting that holds browser audio channels open indefinitely, breaking Bluetooth multipoint headphone pairing.
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The tracking script generates silent audio waveforms to measure hardware synthesizer variations across user devices for fraud risk scoring. However, because the script fails to suspend the WebAudio context after fingerprint collection, operating systems treat the web tab as active media playback.
As a result, wireless headphones with multipoint support remain locked to the shopping browser, preventing incoming calls or music playback from secondary paired devices.