Google Fonts is blocked

[hectorm]

Similar to #132, fonts.gstatic.com domain has a CNAME record pointing to gstaticadssl.l.google.com and the blocking of the latter prevents Google Fonts from working.

I see that this was mentioned in #104, but I open a new issue to follow up on this problem in particular.

[lightswitch05]

See also how google fonts tracks: google/fonts#2345

I have no interest in blocking google fonts, but I’m also not inclined to unblock gstaticadssl.l.google.com over it, especially considering the tracking they are doing.

[hectorm]

Yes, I'm aware of Google using their font service to collect statistics, in fact it is not something they hide, they have a section on their website that shows some data: https://fonts.google.com/analytics

However, since Google Fonts does not require JS, the data they can collect with it is more limited.

It is a difficult decision between more privacy and breaking some websites.

Do you know if the domain gstaticadssl.l.google.com is used in other Google services that have more privacy implications?

[hectorm]

Although it cannot be guaranteed that the domain gstaticadssl.l.google.com is being used for other purposes, I checked the CNAME records of this list and the only one I found was fonts.gstatic.com.

[lightswitch05]

I understand that people would not want fonts blocked. This is why I do not block fonts.gstatic.com. However, I do block gstaticadssl.l.google.com, which is an ad host (gstatic ad ssl). It’s really unfortunate that they use that as a CNAME for fonts. Let’s leave this ticket open, but as more and more CNAME issues pop up- I have less and less interest in whitelisting based on them. I’m not blocking `fonts.gstatic.com and if it ends up being blocked for you because of a CNAME reference, then it’s on you to figure out how to whitelist it. At least that’s my viewpoint on this matter at the moment.