Please do not use outside sites for default features.

WordPress does not call on Google. Themes might if they are using Google fonts – which 2012 does. Try using another theme.

A default theme or setup should not be using outside services, most especially closed source, private services, and in particular not anything from Google.

Google fonts is neither commercial nor private. And what’s wrong with Google?

If you do not like Google Fonts, use another theme? Or create a child theme that does not load Google Fonts.

Google stores information about everyone’s search habits and Internet usage for eternity. I do not submit to this policy, especially on behalf of anyone who visits my site, and I feel it is unethical for WordPress to install these things without first asking permission, or at the very least, informing users.

Again, this is a default setting. If this were an option, as incorporation of Google Gears was for admin panel back in the day, that would be fine, but it is not presented as an option.

Certainly I can figure out how to use a different font, but, again, I believe it is unethical and disingenuous to include outside services, especially considering that most users have no idea how to even identify these sorts of things.

There are additional issues with Google services. They can go away at any time and without warning, a policy Google has practiced many times in the past. Google may change its privacy policies at any time and without warning. Google gets hacked and user info leaked. Google even gets hacked and its users subsequently hacked as a result.

Additionally, some feel it the Google is an evil corporation, part of a leviathan of corporations working largely against the interests of small parties. Forcing these users to use a product without informing them, clearly, unethical.

This greatly changed my opinion of WordPress.

They can go away at any time and without warning

Agreed – although the same can be said of any 3rd party service. Personally I download open source fonts & bundle them within the theme but, as long as there is a valid fallback font (which there is in the 2012 theme), a site will still continue to work very effectively if Google Fonts disappears – albeit using a different font in some places.

Google gets hacked and user info leaked

What info do you think will be collected via a font?

Using fonts, stylesheets, and Javascript libraries hosted by CDNs is quite common and Google offers its services for free, despite any tracking that they may perform.

The tracking, however, would be limited to the IP address of the request and the browser headers, and there is little that could be done with those. By using any of the other Google services, they would set a cookie to figure out if you’ve visited their website before but it is unlikely that they would set a cookie if you are requesting a font, stylesheet, or Javascript library from your markup.

If Google does get hacked, the massive amounts of information would mean that the hacker would have to sift through tons and tons of data to do much with IP addresses and browser headers from delivering fonts, stylesheets, and Javascript libraries. I’d be more concerned about my email, possibly my search history, and the documents I have on Google Docs.

“There are 57 signals that Google looks at.”

https://panopticlick.eff.org/