Privacy concerns with gstatic.com [Theme: Universal]

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1

I have discovered the Universal Theme for Hugo and find it very appealing.
However, I have a concern about it which is not hugo-specific, yet I decided to ask here since I guess an open-source community like this one usually pays attention to privacy issues.

I noticed that it makes server requests to:

What I do know about gstatic, that it is used to load content from the google CDN.
According to better.fyi it monetises you (just as other google APIs) and uses invisible tracking pixels “on some sites” (?)
The source they refer to states that “Content loaded from ssl.gstatic.com and www.gstatic.com do not use client-side tracking methods.”

1. So, do I violate my visitors’ privacy by using gstatic (or the other components) in ethical terms?
2. Would it be possible to transfer all data that is fetched from those servers to my local project so it wouldn’t need those server requests anymore? *[see below]

*Edit: I have looked through the files. Is it right to assume that I can avoid using those external server requests by just placing the requested .css and .js from bootstrapcdn & google in my local folders (&updating the links in the source code)?

2

Yes, you can host all those files locally.
There are numerous added benefits to doing it, in fact…especially if you’re at the point in your development where you’re setting cache-control headers.

Here’s what you should do:

  1. Host the google fonts locally
  2. Host your own css
  3. The only reason to use the maps API is if you’re displaying maps on your site. Are you using maps for anything? If not, you can probably get rid of it…
1 Like
3

Cool, that is very straight-forward.

The template uses gmaps to display the location specified on the contacts page. I will remove that.

Do you mind naming them? I have read that using CDNs like bootrstap or gstatic is supposed to speed up your page compared to storing everything local.

Will have to read into what’s cache-control headers :flushed: