Google Fonts and the Scam of False Warnings

You may have gotten an email asking for money if you are modifying a website that utilizes Google Fonts. Many websites have fallen victim to this fraud.

GOOGLE FONTS WOULD NOT BE IN ACCORDANCE WITH RGPD

Fonts is widely used on the internet. This Google service offers a catalog of over 1,400 policies that may be utilized on websites or in a variety of applications, including creative initiatives.

The library is free to use; they are not hosted on your own server to make them available, but are charged straight from Google servers when you visit the page.

In doing so, Google receives the visitor’s IP address. In the framework of the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (RGPD), a court in Munich ruled that the transmission of the IP address was a breach of the RGPD.

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According to German law, an IP address is considered personal data, thus it is important to get the agreement of website visitors before transmitting this information to Google.

MASSIVE SCAM IN GERMANY

Obviously, frauds arose as a result of this predicament. Indeed, there has been a massive outpouring of warnings to website proprietors that have used Google Fonts. Hidden beneath these warnings was a perilous business strategy.

Through a letter from a lawyer, two corporations are accused of unlawfully warning people and small businesses that utilize Google Fonts. The fraud appears to have been huge, since software was used to seek out websites that utilize Google Fonts, which were then called automatically by other software.

To prevent costly legal processes, publishers were offered a 170 euro lump payment indemnification. The threat of legal action was utilized to put pressure on and get a settlement. In total, 2,418 instances were detected, and approximately 340,000 euros were recovered using this method.

According to a press statement from the Berlin prosecution, due to “suspicion of swindle and (attempt) extortion,” German police have filed search warrants in Berlin, Hanover, Ratzeburg, and Baden-Baden, as well as two arrest warrants.

GOOGLE DEFENDS GOOGLE FONTS

Despite this, there are several objections of the court ruling as well as the technical interpretation of the RGPD. This German case law allows problematic counsel to offer a warning, as did the corporations punished here. Google also weighed in on the matter, issuing a remark in a blog post.

Google Fonts is an open source police library and a web API that allows police families to be linked into websites, according to Google. People want the websites they visit to be well-designed, simple to use, and secure.

Google further emphasizes its commitment to privacy: « The Google Fonts Web API is designed to limit data collection, storage, and use to what is required for loading fonts and aggregated use statistics. These data are safely stored and kept distinct from other data. These information would not be utilized to profile end users in the context of advertising efforts.