Google Fonts before consent or external font loading

Why this matters

External font requests can expose a visitor IP address to third parties before consent. Even if the payload is small, the network transfer itself may be enough to trigger a finding.

How to verify manually

1. Inspect the Network panel for requests to fonts.googleapis.com or fonts.gstatic.com on first load.
2. Check the page source and CSS bundles for @import or remote font references.
3. Verify whether theme, builder, or plugin settings re-enable hosted fonts after deployment.

Typical root causes

• Theme or page builder loads Google Fonts by default.
• Remote @import remains in CSS even after partial self-hosting.
• Performance plugins aggregate CSS but preserve remote font URLs.

GTM fix

1. Remove any GTM-delivered custom HTML that injects Google Fonts or icon CDNs.
2. Audit marketing landing page tags for embedded font imports.
3. Keep typography assets outside tag-manager delivery unless strictly necessary.

WordPress fix

1. Disable Google Fonts in theme or builder settings and switch to local assets.
2. Use a self-hosting plugin or theme option to download and serve fonts locally.
3. Purge cache and verify the frontend no longer calls Google font endpoints.

Generic fix

1. Download required font files and serve them from your own origin or CDN.
2. Replace remote stylesheet imports with local @font-face declarations.
3. Remove fallback components that reintroduce hosted fonts on specific pages.

How to confirm the fix worked

• Reload the page with a clean cache and confirm no Google Fonts requests occur.
• Check multiple templates and breakpoints to ensure no remote font reference remains.
• Run a fresh scan and verify the font-related finding is gone.