How do I block Google fonts here?

Community Help! How to?
#1

As far as I can tell, Google fonts needs to check my computer to see if I have that Google-cute wannabe for Arial or Helvetica font. Whether I do or don’t have that particular Google font in my cache, Google still gets my IP, the site I am visiting with the Google font, time and date and from where. That’s too much.

I brought this up once before but I cannot remember where, nor find on privacytools.io (PTI), where the discussion is/was. So I start again - sorry.

I posted a copy of the screen cap showing my concern but can’t find that either. So today, I noticed it again (see new image below).

The problem is, most of the icons used, like those beside “Donate”, all those with the " Spread the word and help your friends" prompt, and other icons, are just squares. Too many sites are starting to show the same squares, making me wonder - are most sites infected with the Google disease, is uBlock on acid, am I?

NOTE: This is only happening at the root privacytools.io not elsewhere (so far) via PTI other pages.

uBlock
I would like to see everything, but not if it means Google is seeing it as well.

TIA
~o~

google-font-stalkers
google-font-stalkers734×435 28.4 KB

tada

#2

FWIW, the donate button on the root PTIO page works just fine if I block web fonts only on PTIO.

I use UBO, Decentraleyes and CanvasBlocker on Firefox.

#3

Your original discussion was on Mastodon.

https://social.privacytools.io/@Outernaut/102520168216201339

As we discussed there, this is not an issue with the website. The website does not use Google Fonts, or external fonts of any kind. As I pointed out, this is easily verifiable by monitoring network requests.

You seem to be misunderstanding uBlock Origin’s font blocking functionality. The button you have highlighted does not mean “Block Google Fonts”, it means “Block all fonts not installed on your computer”. What that button is blocking is the fonts at /assets/webfonts (our FontAwesome fonts).

Because those fonts are included in our GitHub repo, and by extension our website, when your browser loads those fonts it is loading them directly from privacytools.io and not Google Fonts.

Google Fonts is not used. Google is not contacted.

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#4

Open the logger in UBO to see exactly what files it is blocking.

#5

Than very much @jonah for the excellent explanation. It’s getting easier to lean towards trashing devices and going back to pen and ink, than spending so much time and energy, and money too, on keeping the peeps and pervs out of my devices. Can you imagine how much more money everyone would have, and how much more time if we didn’t have ‘devices’?

I guess protection from Google means running UB Logger on each site, learn some coding about what shows as website-side verses the sites 3rd party fonts and difference, and then decide to block them or not, somehow - before site loads any fonts.

Damn - Google made a mess of privacy and choices.

Thanks again Jonah.

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#6

One way of doing that, is simply by blacklisting the google fonts domains themselves.
I maintain a list of Google domains, in a filter format. You can use those for that purpose.

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#7

So far, from what I’ve learned in last 2 - 3 months, is that to protect one’s privacy means a HUGE learning curve.

I thank you for your help, but I have no idea what a pi-hole is, where the “blocklist settings” should be and one of the instructions “Simply go into to your blocklist settings to add either, the whole filter…” is - well, not simple to me :slight_smile:
Another instruction said …

Import it manually, or ✫click on this link"

and that when I do click, it opens a popup (popup blocker enabled???) that states:

image
It’s Greek to me (no offense to Greeks). Do I need a “pi-hole”?

If I beg out and copy & pasted the URL, I’m met with:

This site can’t be reached
subscribe.adblockplus.org ’s server IP address could not be found.

Same if I click the ✫link I quoted back (above) from Github(?)

Most stuff I read assumes the reader is educated is most of those arenas - sorry that I just don’t get it. But your response is here, in perpetuity (I hope) and will prove helpful to the hobbyists and up. And that is a great thing - thank you.

☍ O

.

#8

Pi-hole is a self-hosted DNS server, mainly made to block apps and potential trackers on your network.
It is actually listed on Privacytools.io

Network wide DNS servers:

  • Pi-hole - A network-wide DNS server mainly for the Raspberry Pi. Blocks ads, tracking, and malicious domains for all devices on your network.

Anyway, the list is mainly made for the Pi-hole, but uBlock Origin does support both types of formats.
That pop-up you see, is uBlock Origin, your adblocker. However, it is also able to block more things than just ads, in that case, it can block elements from Google.
By pressing OK, uBlock Origin will start blocking ALL the Google servers listed on the list. If it breaks to much sites (As some websites sadly rely on some G elements) You can also choose to select one of the other categories of list i have setup on the GitHub page (Prefer picking the parsed ones) and add it to uBlock Origin filter lists.

Oh, and the subscribe adblock thing is actually not a “real website” in itself. It just an adblocker standard (coming from the old adblockplus) to determine if a link should be considered as a list for any adblocker extensions. (Imagine having that message, asking you if you want to add it to the list to every links you click or enter, by adding “this domain” the extension know it is a list).

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