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ADR-0002: Self-Hosted Fonts (Zero Telemetry Doctrine)

Status: Accepted
Date: 2024-01-01
Author: @johalputt

Context

VayuPress uses Inter and IBM Plex Mono as its typefaces. These are commonly loaded from Google Fonts or similar CDNs.

Decision

All fonts are downloaded at deploy time from jsDelivr (npm CDN) and served from /static/fonts/ on the VayuPress instance. No external font CDN is contacted at runtime.

Rationale

  • External font CDNs leak user IP addresses to third parties.
  • GDPR and privacy regulations in many jurisdictions require explicit consent for such tracking.
  • VayuPress's Privacy by Design principle prohibits telemetry by default.
  • jsDelivr is used only at deploy time (by the admin running the script), not by end users.

Alternatives Considered

  • Google Fonts at runtime: Rejected — sends user IPs to Google on every page load.
  • System fonts only: Acceptable fallback if download fails; Inter provides better cross-platform consistency.

Consequences

  • Positive: Zero font-load telemetry for users.
  • Negative: Deploy script must download fonts; fails gracefully with system-ui fallback.

Ethical Implications

Fully aligned with Privacy by Design. Removes a common GDPR compliance issue from the default configuration.