Is Google Fonts (hosted) GDPR compliant?

What does Google Fonts (hosted) do?

Web fonts loaded from Google's servers. Every page view sends the visitor's IP address to Google before any consent, which is what the Munich Regional Court awarded damages over. Download the font files and serve them from your own domain.

Does Google Fonts (hosted) need consent?

Yes. Google Fonts (hosted) is Web fonts, which is never strictly necessary for a website to function. Under ePrivacy Article 5(3), and its national transpositions, storing or reading anything on the device for that purpose requires consent first, and that consent has to be as easy to refuse as it is to give.

ePrivacy Art. 5(3) · TDDDG § 25 (DE) · TKG 2021 § 165(3) (AT) · GDPR Art. 6(1)(a)

Does Google Fonts (hosted) send data outside the EEA?

Yes. Google Fonts (hosted) processes data outside the European Economic Area, so you need a transfer mechanism under Chapter V and you have to say so in your privacy policy. In practice this means standard contractual clauses, or a provider certified under the EU-US Data Privacy Framework.

LG München I, 3 O 17493/20 · GDPR Art. 6(1)

How do we detect Google Fonts (hosted)?

We load your page in a real browser as a first-time visitor who clicks nothing, then look at what it contacted. Google Fonts (hosted) is recognised by requests to fonts.googleapis.com and fonts.gstatic.com, and we report whether it merely loaded or actually sent data, and whether it set a cookie before any choice was made.