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Compliance · WordPress

Is loading Google Fonts from the CDN a GDPR problem in WordPress

Loading fonts from Google's CDN at request time transmits every visitor's IP address to Google. A German court (LG München I, 3 O 17493/20) awarded damages for exactly this, and it triggered a wave of demand letters. Self-hosting the files removes the transfer entirely, is a one-line change in most frameworks, and is also faster.

The fix for WordPress

13x detects your framework from the response and hands you this version rather than the generic one — below 50% confidence it hedges and gives you the generic one instead.

Most themes enqueue Google Fonts directly. Either:

1. Use a plugin such as OMGF (Optimize My Google Fonts), which downloads the files and rewrites the URLs to your own domain, or 2. Dequeue the theme's font handle in your child theme's functions.php and @font-face the files yourself.

Afterwards, search the rendered page source for fonts.googleapis.com to confirm nothing is left.

On a different stack? The general version of this fix explains what 13x checks and why it matters, without assuming a framework.

Check your WordPress site

113 deterministic checks against your live URL, in about 30 seconds. Framework detected from the response, so every fix comes back in the form your stack actually uses.

No signup. Results in 30 seconds.

The same fix, other stacks