€100 FINE in Germany For Using Google Fonts - A Simple Solution!

At the end of January 2022, a German court ruling fined a website owner €100 for not explicitly getting permission from a site visitor for accessing the Google fonts used on the website.

As GDPR rules state that any identifying information has to be explicitly approved by the user BEFOREHAND - Google gained access to the users IP address (a way to potentially identify a users ID) when the font was downloaded to the user's browser.

Why should you care? If this ruling sets precedence, then other countries may adopt a similar ruling and you could fall foul of this GDPR issue if you're not careful.

An easy way around this is to host the Google fonts locally and NOT access them from Google's servers.

Here are 3 easy methods to do just that!

Take your WordPress website and skills to the next level!

► THE TOOLS I LOVE ◄
If you like what we do and would like to support us, please consider using these affiliate links when purchasing any of the plugins covered in our tutorials. Thank you for your support.

► EXCLUSIVE WPTUTS DISCOUNTS ◄

► MY PREFERRED HOSTING PROVIDERS ◄

► WORDPRESS VISUAL PAGE BUILDERS ◄

► WORDPRESS THEMES ◄

► WORDPRESS TOOLS ◄

► WORDPRESS PLUGINS ◄

► SUBSCRIBE ◄

► LETS CONNECT: ◄

[volkerschuster]

These Germans again, being German myself, I can safely say that Germany is possibly the only country where Lawyers specialising in sending fines regarding GDPR exist.

[id]

This is so unfair. How are we supposed to inspect every single thing under microscope and be constantly knowing every single new rule? It's a trap! Isn't there just ONE option that you can tick ON that doesn't allow user data to get out of your site?

[daanvandenbergh]

Hi Paul! I'm the developer of OMGF. Thanks for mentioning my plugin in your video! 😎

[andrasaimre]

GDPR with their rules and that german way to fine website owners for using fonts is totally bizarre. The easiest way would be to say that once you use the internet, you understand that you are losing your privacy and that's it.

[ibrahim.tariq]

Hi Paul, You missed something in the video: Using plugin like Perfmatters, we can also use to store Google fonts locally. Cherry on the cake is we can anonymize the user IP with a simple click option in perfmatters.

[wpglob-wordpresstutorials]

Great tutorial. Very informative. Every time I enter your channel knowing that I'll learn something very valuable from you.

[garciajoaquin]

Tu contenido es de una calidad superior, muy claro, muy profesional y sobre todo práctico! Gracias !

[RodrigoHernandez-ptgg]

Awesome Paul! Thanks for the valuable information! One question for further Google services... what is the matter with Google Analytics/ Google Maps? Any information about the topic? An incoming video maybe? Cheers and thanks a lot!

[comleonmoto]

Another super useful tutorial. Thanks a lot Paul!

[RichardWadeUK]

Great suggestions Paul. GDPR is a complete mess and wasn't properly thought out before it was rolled out. There are a lot of crazy rulings being pushed (particularly within the EU) and much will be rejected on appeal. It's going to take many years for true case law to be established to set the standards. That said, I would also imagine that you could have simple wording in your privacy policy regarding information sharing with 3rd parties (including, but not limited to IP addresses and Google etc.) that people can accept with the click ok on the cookie / privacy consent.

[AnilAgrawal]

I think Astra Pro theme has the local fonts option which I have turned ON. Will double check. Cool info and tips. Thank you, Paul.

[bySterling]

WTFrick?!? Wow Big UPS for getting our back Paul 💯

[kookia]

Great video and will definatly use this trick. Two more questions if you may: 1. Why not simply do a "fade in" kind of popup that says: "this website uses cookies and read and send data bla bla bla' and get you covered? (or it is too late because once website loads, details were already transmitted?). 2. Are google fonts free to use?. I seen the "open source" gpl (or something like that) license agreement and it seems free. the question is: in order to use them in a commercial website, should one contribute or pay to someone ?

Thank you again.

[Passion_]

Hi Paul, are there any pros/cons as to using a plug-in like OMGF over the other route of uploading options through page builders?

[serferp]

In develop edition Elementor you can use Custom Fonts, but not in normal free use

[martin_minds]

this is not only for germany. it is for the eu.

[martinnorton]

And FontAwesome, layered throughout Elementor, similar issue?

[alexandrosdimiropoulos]

When you were downloading OMGF another interesting plugin appeared next to it! CAOS host google analytics locally! Do you think it is also good to use a plugin like this for GDPR?

[Railfandepot]

Could a solution be to just use "Safe fonts", like Arial and Times New Roman? Boring, but no calls and no plugins. Right? Or am I missing something? (Entirely possible!)

[davidadams]

Paul, just made a few posts about this and they have all disappeared. Could you look into this and 'restore them from quarantine'?