A new technique is allowing major websites to monitor users ’ online activity . The audio fingerprinting technique is not widely adopted but joins a number of other approaches that could be used in combination for tracking users as they browse the Internet. Audio Fingerprinting has nothing to do with a device ’s microphone , but instead relies on the way in which the audio output of each machine is processed . A third - party tracker uses the microphone to send low - frequency signals to a user ’s device . Once processed , a unique fingerprint is created based on the device ’s hardware and software capabilities . This is providing a valuable new tool to a range of interested parties , including Google , marketing organisations and law enforcement . Researchers at Princeton University discovered that Google has , through a number of domains , tracked users on nearly 80 % of all top one million domains using this and other tracking techniques .
A new technique is allowing major websites to monitor users ’ online activity . Audio Fingerprinting has nothing to do with a device ’s microphone , but instead relies on the way in which the audio output of each machine is processed . A third - party tracker uses the microphone to send low - frequency signals to a user ’s device . Once processed , a unique fingerprint is created based on the device ’s hardware and software capabilities . This is providing a valuable new tool to a range of interested parties , including Google , marketing organisations and law enforcement . Researchers at Princeton University discovered that Google has , through a number of domains , tracked users on nearly 80 % of all top one million domains using this and other tracking techniques .