Why do we need google fonts on the forum?

I began to use Rentgen in Firefox and got the result that forum.manjaro.org uses fonts.googleapis.com and fonts.gstatic.com? Is this really necessary?

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Why are you against this? Please elaborate with common sense and don’t just shout “privacy”.

It reduces traffic on the forum’s server, improves cache handling for this font for all pages, and speeds up load time by distributing request across multiple servers.

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I’m not sure whether this would be a “remedy” for you, personally, but there is a setting in every browser to allow/deny the use of external fonts.
In Firefox it is here:
Settings → General → Fonts → Advanced

ublock-origin (the ad blocker) also has a setting to control this

ps:
I myself don’t do that - I don’t see a problem with that.
Just pointing out the possibilities to not allow these if one so chooses.

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Sorry to butt in but…
It’s IMHO also totally unnecessary.
If you aim for faster responsiveness and load times, then just use the fonts that are already installed on the OS of your audience…
(Manjaro OS users in this context)


@folky
As mentioned above already, we have blockers to block stuff like that on all webpages :slight_smile:

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Well, you could also remove all javascript and css, images, and even posts: a white, empty page loads fastest.
The forum admins want their style, so you have to live with additional fonts or disable them altogether.

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Like said, we already can (and most already do) block certain stuff on webpages, this forum included :stuck_out_tongue:

Not visiting is even faster :rofl:

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Thank you. That was helpful.

I just wanted to know why one would need external fonts and in this way give a third-part information about your surfing. It’s just unnecessary.
Now I have done what @Nachlese suggested and - surprise - I don’t even see any difference on the forum. So, the fonts I have installed on my computer are a good enough substitute or maybe in this case already the same font-family.

PS. To be honest. Those fonts are the least problem. I visited the site of the biggest swedish newspaper. And Rentgen is giving me 14 (fourteen!) hits.

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If you look at the network inspector the full request is just to GET https://fonts.googleapis.com/css?family=Roboto:400,500,700. Literally the only thing that tells Google is that you are viewing a webpage that uses the Roboto font. So, that narrows it down to about 50% of websites in existence.

That’s wrong. Google does not know which page you’re loading.

Network inspector also shows that each request to Google Fonts has a Referer header attached, giving Google information about the domain that you’re visiting. That’s useful enough for an advertising profile.

Admins of this forum could add a Referrer-Policy header to prevent it from being revealed to Google. This could be a compromise that gives users of the forum a little bit more privacy, while preserving other mentioned benefits of using Google Fonts.

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Right now I’m accessing from my Windows install. I came to these forums from Linux Mint before ever trying Manjaro.

That is correct, I did not see that

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