Webstories, Google Fonts and GDPR

  • Resolved elschnuppero

    (@elschnuppero)


    1 year, 1 month ago

    Hi there,

    we noticed that the webstories get their fonts loaded from the google servers.

    In 2021 some of your plugin supporters wrote here (GDPR compliance | WordPress.org):

    The Web Stories plugin by default does not send any data to Google when installed.

    If you have Google Analytics ID configured in the settings, data about users opening/viewing stories on the site will be sent to the analytics platform. There is also data like this that can be sent to ad networks if that is configured. Site owners must ensure consent is collected from site visitors before collecting “story analytics” data, and that the consent covers any other tracking and personalization done by their configured ad network as well. Thanks again for your post.

    @luckynasan

    Is there any way to prevent this, since loading the fonts from google servers is violating the gdpr here in germany?

    Thank you

    The page I need help with: [log in to see the link]

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
  • Plugin Author Pascal Birchler

    (@swissspidy)

    1 year, 1 month ago

    If you don’t want to serve the fonts from the Google Fonts CDN, there are basically three options:

    1. Upload your custom fonts for use in stories on the settings page
    2. Self-host all fonts on your own server
    3. Do not use fonts from Google Fonts

    While we don’t currently offer (2), there are existing WordPress plugins out there that enable self-hosting of Google Fonts, which I’d recommend checking out. This way we don’t have to reinvent the wheel 🙂

    For context, here’s the Google Fonts Privacy FAQ about what kind of data gets transferred.

    Aside: I noticed you added a custom back button to your story. Note that this makes it ineligible to appear in places like the stories carousel in Google Search and Discover.

    Thread Starter elschnuppero

    (@elschnuppero)

    1 year, 1 month ago

    Hi Pascal,

    thank you for your reply.

    We tried to switch the font but we couldnt get the plugin to use a “custom” locally hosted since it gave us an CORS-error.

    Well, i tried to upload an image of the error, but apparently the support forum doesnt like screenshots, so i paste the error:

    Please ensure correct CORE settings for allowing font usage on this site.

    But the font is placed on our own server, the same site.

    And so we only have the options inside the stories to pick from google fonts 🙁

    Thank you

    Plugin Author Pascal Birchler

    (@swissspidy)

    1 year, 1 month ago

    Depending on your server configuration it’s required that the font is served with an Access-Control-Allow-Origin header.

    Can you please share the URL to the font you’re trying to add? This way I can take a closer look. Perhaps there’s a different error and the error message is incorrect.

    Thread Starter elschnuppero

    (@elschnuppero)

    1 year, 1 month ago

    I tried some other directories on our server and found a solution. Now we can add local fonts over the settings and the webstory itself isnt loading from google fonts server anymore. Thank you.

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
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