I am not a web designer. I was, at one point, a pretty good web admin. I know mostly server back end stuff from before things like NodeJS took off. I know some PHP and CSS and I am very comfortable with a WHM Cpanel server.

I say all of this to say, when I make websites I use templates. (Usually free, some paid) and I have recently started going to all of the sites I own and manage and working to ensure they don't have google fonts. This is just another way google is tracking who is doing what when they have no business doing so.

so I implore you web people of the world, DITCH THE GOOGLE FONTS!

#degoogle #privacy #fonts #webdesign

@ahasty same generation. same skillset.
Good advice. Thanks!
@ahasty OK I'll bite. How do you track a font? The concept is bizzare
@geolaw @ahasty google fonts suggests you use them on your website by using an html blob that downloads it from their servers. They can track what IP downloads what, though it’s unclear how that would be useful to them.

@cinebox @geolaw

So when you have a google font encoded into your website, this is done as a CSS link in the headers of your site.

When someone loads your page, their browser goes out to the fonts.google.com link in your website and says "Hey google, I am {IPADDRESS}, and {WEBSITE} told me to come here and get {font}. Google then delivers a font file and they get to know not only what person(ip and browser) visited but also what site sent them there and when.

I would imaging this is pretty useful to know for a company that is selling target ads.

All for the bargain basement price of hosting a font file.

@ahasty @cinebox But it is possible for a website to host its own font file? Or even not specify any font at all in which case the browser uses its default font?
@geolaw @ahasty yes and yes. The google suggested way is just for convenience.
@ahasty luckily there’s the option of downloading and hosting the fonts yourself. this way you can also control the styles and weights and will reduce load times too.
@ahasty I recommend bunny fonts if you need an external hosted font.
@ahasty a side note: You can either locally host the fonts or replace the font server with https://fonts.bunny.net
Bunny Fonts | Explore Faster & GDPR friendly Fonts

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@ahasty and jquery, and urchin/analytics, and YouTube embeds, and ads, and Share links……..