I’m not suggesting you treat the word normie as a slur against some group, but that it betrays a type of thought process that will ultimately work against you. If you want to understand why, compare it to my generation’s equivalent: sheeple. The word is intended to express how people are concerned with what everyone else is doing, not on the consolidation of power after the fall of the Berlin Wall or the reliance of Nordic social democracies on the immiseration of the global south or the removal of tassels from flags or the reemergence of lemuria. The language creates an out group and invites the reader (or listener) to join the in group. It’s not useful for understanding what people outside your circle think about data or privacy because it assumes what they think broadly and its context provides the specifics of what they think.

That’s all just to clarify that it’s not a no-no word, but a word that asserts a premise that probably needs to be examined and rejected if you want to have success in your stated aim.

As far as shifting the message, I’d actually avoid talking about election conspiracy or any other conspiratorial use of data. Most people recognize the surveillance state. You can just talk directly about the way people’s information flows into the hands of data brokers and from there into the state surveillance system. People are already under the impression that they’re being tracked, just give them a way to impede it.

“You can stop yourself from being tracked, here’s how:” is gonna be a lot more effective than trying to convince people that they’re being tracked for the purposes of election manipulation.

You have a section about that but it’s way too far down and you need to lead with it. Of course that also means putting together straightforward steps for accomplishing that task that cover all current versions of android (yes including the bobo vendor specific versions), windows, macos and ios.

I feel the need to be clear that I wasn’t trying to be rude when describing the overall vibe as student. There’s nothing wrong with being a student and I don’t think it indicates immaturity at all. A few specific elements that contribute to me calling it that are the white on black text, anti corporate imagery with overtones of incitement and use of hot colors like red instead of cool colors like blue.

Those things make me think student because they’re the elements of a flyer or band tee instead of an informational pamphlet. The reason that comes across as student is that together they say “I’m freaked out/excited and you should be too!” Which is not something that helps your stated goal of helping everyday people become more aware of the importance of data privacy.

I chose the word student to describe it because i had hoped it would convey all that and some measure of how “crank” a lot of that messaging strategy comes across.

You don’t want to be ranting in the street, handing out flyers or selling newspapers if you’re worried about actually reaching people.

I’d avoid gamifying privacy. It’s kind of a masters tools situation.