[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #55985: [Older Twenty-* Themes] Replace directly loading fonts from Google Fonts with including them in each theme

[WordPress Trac]

#55985: [Older Twenty-* Themes] Replace directly loading fonts from Google Fonts
with including them in each theme
-------------------------+-----------------------------
 Reporter:  luminuu      |      Owner:  (none)
     Type:  enhancement  |     Status:  new
 Priority:  normal       |  Milestone:  Awaiting Review
Component:  Themes       |    Version:  trunk
 Severity:  major        |   Keywords:
  Focuses:  privacy      |
-------------------------+-----------------------------
 Several older default themes are still using Google Fonts directly loaded
 from the Google servers. Here's a list of all affected themes:

 - Twenty Twelve
 - Twenty Thirteen
 - Twenty Fourteen
 - Twenty Fifteen
 - Twenty Sixteen
 - Twenty Seventeen

 This issue has been talked about in the past here in Trac: #42166, #43898
 as well as in the Github repository of the Twenty Twenty theme, which is
 the most recent one: https://github.com/WordPress/twentytwenty/issues/4

 Earlier this year, a German Court has fined a website owner for
 implementing fonts directly from Google Fonts: https://wptavern.com
 /german-court-fines-website-owner-for-violating-the-gdpr-by-using-google-
 hosted-fonts

 While in the newer default themes fonts got added as an asset, the older
 default themes remained untouched. This can cause issues with users not
 being aware of both the legal stuff and the fact that Google Fonts are
 directly used in default themes. Today, in the German support forums a
 website owner, who created a website with Twenty Seventeen, shared that he
 has been threatened by another person making use of the German court rule
 from earlier this year. Link to the support topic, all posts are in
 German: https://de.wordpress.org/support/topic/google-fonts-werde-hier-
 abgemahnt-twentyseventeen-fonts/

 We (@luehrsen, @luminuu) want to raise this issue and propose to have the
 Google Fonts used in older default themes to be served from the theme
 itself, not using the Google Fonts servers. We think while it is still
 widely among plugins and other themes to use Google Fonts directly, the
 default themes of WordPress should be able to used risk-free and compliant
 with the GDPR.

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Ticket URL: <https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/55985>
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