--- title: His headphones kept cutting out, so he read the... description: A developer traced his cutting-out Bluetooth headphones to two silent WebAudio graphs (collina.js and fireyejs.js) running on the AliExpress homepage, part of... canonical: https://daily.dev/posts/his-headphones-kept-cutting-out-so-he-read-the-aliexpress-code-cier9ulez twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:site: @dailydotdev og:type: website og:site_name: daily.dev og:title: His headphones kept cutting out, so he read the AliExpress code | daily.dev og:description: A developer traced his cutting-out Bluetooth headphones to two silent WebAudio graphs (collina.js and fireyejs.js) running on the AliExpress homepage, part of... og:url: https://daily.dev/posts/his-headphones-kept-cutting-out-so-he-read-the-aliexpress-code-cier9ulez og:image: https://api.daily.dev/og/posts/ciER9ULez.png og:image:alt: His headphones kept cutting out, so he read the AliExpress code og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 630 og:locale: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # His headphones kept cutting out, so he read the AliExpress code **[The Next Web](https://daily.dev/sources/tnw)** · 6 min read · 0 upvotes · 0 comments ## Summary A developer traced his cutting-out Bluetooth headphones to two silent WebAudio graphs (collina.js and fireyejs.js) running on the AliExpress homepage, part of what appears to be Alibaba's browser fingerprinting and anti-fraud tooling. The scripts build an audio processing chain that never produces audible sound but still forces the browser to process audio, alongside a broad device fingerprint covering canvas, WebGL, hardware, and behavioral signals. Firefox engineer Tom Ritter says this specific WebAudio fingerprinting method is largely defeated since Firefox 118 (September 2023), which normalized output so 99.24% of users share one of three values, though 48 users worldwide remain uniquely identifiable through a long tail of 23 additional values. Brave and Safari also claim defenses; Chrome reportedly does not aggressively block fingerprinting. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Questions this post answers ### Why do my Bluetooth headphones cut out when I open the AliExpress homepage? AliExpress runs two WebAudio scripts, collina.js and fireyejs.js, that create silent AudioContext objects connected to the system audio destination as part of browser fingerprinting and anti-fraud tooling. Because no media element exists, tab or system mute controls don't stop it, and the running audio context can interrupt other audio streams like multipoint Bluetooth headphone connections. Blocking the scripts with uBlock Origin filters and closing existing tabs resolves it. _Developers debugging odd browser audio behavior can find real-world fingerprinting writeups like this on daily.dev._ ### Does Firefox still protect against WebAudio fingerprinting? Yes, Firefox normalized WebAudio output starting in version 118, released in September 2023, as its first round of fingerprinting protections. As a result, 99.24% of users now produce one of three possible WebAudio measurement values (tied to CPU architecture: x86/x64 without FMA, x64 with FMA, or ARM with NEON), while 0.76% return a zero from a failed measurement, making the technique largely ineffective according to Firefox engineer Tom Ritter. _Track how browsers evolve their anti-fingerprinting defenses by following privacy and security coverage on daily.dev._ ### Can WebAudio fingerprinting still uniquely identify some users even with Firefox's protections? Yes, a long tail of 48 users worldwide fall outside Firefox's three normalized WebAudio output values, spread across 23 additional distinct values, which makes each of them individually identifiable by this specific measurement. Firefox engineer Tom Ritter attributes this to causes like bad memory, CPU bugs, or unusual hardware architectures, though he still calls WebAudio fingerprinting overall nearly useless as a tracking method. _Anyone weighing browser privacy trade-offs can keep up with fingerprinting research through daily.dev._ ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Fingerprints Are the New Cookies](https://daily.dev/posts/fingerprints-are-the-new-cookies-fxtqozs0a) · Hacker News · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Google Chrome lacks browser fingerprinting defenses](https://daily.dev/posts/google-chrome-lacks-browser-fingerprinting-defenses-f5qvimp5z) · The Register · 3 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#privacy](https://daily.dev/tags/privacy), [#firefox](https://daily.dev/tags/firefox) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/his-headphones-kept-cutting-out-so-he-read-the-aliexpress-code-cier9ulez) ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180},"sameAs":["https://twitter.com/dailydotdev","https://github.com/dailydotdev","https://www.linkedin.com/company/daily-dev-ltd"]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https://daily.dev/#website","url":"https://daily.dev","name":"daily.dev","publisher":{"@id":"https://daily.dev/#organization"},"potentialAction":{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https://daily.dev/search?q={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"TechArticle","headline":"His headphones kept cutting out, so he read the AliExpress code","url":"https://daily.dev/posts/his-headphones-kept-cutting-out-so-he-read-the-aliexpress-code-cier9ulez","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/his-headphones-kept-cutting-out-so-he-read-the-aliexpress-code-cier9ulez"},"datePublished":"2026-08-24T14:50:40.608Z","dateModified":"2026-08-28T07:26:17.552Z","description":"A developer traced his cutting-out Bluetooth headphones to two silent WebAudio graphs (collina.js and fireyejs.js) running on the AliExpress homepage, part of...","image":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/30073d38ea07db227f59b772a7284d22?_a=AQAEuop","thumbnailUrl":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/f_auto,q_auto/v1/posts/30073d38ea07db227f59b772a7284d22?_a=AQAEuop","isAccessibleForFree":true,"articleSection":"The Next Web","inLanguage":"en","publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"daily.dev","url":"https://daily.dev","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://daily.dev/apple-touch-icon.png","width":180,"height":180}},"author":{"@type":"Organization","name":"The Next Web","logo":"https://media.daily.dev/image/upload/t_logo,f_auto/v1/logos/tnw","url":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},"commentCount":0,"discussionUrl":"https://daily.dev/posts/his-headphones-kept-cutting-out-so-he-read-the-aliexpress-code-cier9ulez","interactionStatistic":[{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"LikeAction"},"userInteractionCount":0},{"@type":"InteractionCounter","interactionType":{"@type":"CommentAction"},"userInteractionCount":0}],"keywords":"privacy,firefox","timeRequired":"PT6M"} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https://daily.dev"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Next Web","item":"https://daily.dev/sources/tnw"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"His headphones kept cutting out, so he read the AliExpress code"}]} {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"FAQPage","@id":"https://daily.dev/posts/his-headphones-kept-cutting-out-so-he-read-the-aliexpress-code-cier9ulez#faq","mainEntity":[{"@type":"Question","name":"Why do my Bluetooth headphones cut out when I open the AliExpress homepage?","acceptedAnswer":{"@type":"Answer","text":"AliExpress runs two WebAudio scripts, collina.js and fireyejs.js, that create silent AudioContext objects connected to the system audio destination as part of browser fingerprinting and anti-fraud tooling. 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