PERSONAL DATA BREACH ON THE INTERNET: A CASE STUDY ON GOOGLE FONT

Web pages have maintained their popularity from the moment the internet entered our lives becoming a social media catalogue for every sector. Websites facilitated and accelerated many processes such as reaching target audiences, advertising, or sales. Thus, the presence of every sector in the social environment was ensured. With the development of information technology, design opportunities have also developed and the visuality and attractiveness of web pages have gradually increased. Video and text effects are at the top of the design possibilities. Apart from the attractive possibilities of these developing design possibilities, they have also been used for malicious purposes such as stealing or damaging information. This study addresses how the use of Google Fonts conflicts with the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the ways to solve this problem. The GDPR has introduced strict rules on the protection and processing of personal data. However, Google Fonts, which is widely used by web developers and designers, sends users' IP addresses to Google's servers without explicitly stating how this data is processed. This is contrary to the GDPR principles of transparency and data minimization. This article elaborates on the privacy implications of using Google Fonts as well as the GDPR violations. As a solution, this study introduces alternatives such as local font hosting, open-source font libraries, and associated best practices. It also emphasizes the significance of the adoption of privacy-oriented design principles by web developers and designers and discusses the potential of these approaches to achieve GDPR compliance. In terms of theoretical and practical perspective, this study aims to provide a roadmap for harmonizing the use of Google Fonts and similar services with applicable privacy-related legislation.