Frost Brown Todd attorney Mason Clutter, who leads our firm’s Data Security and Privacy team, was the featured guest on the She Said Privacy/He Said Security podcast in an episode titled “Navigating Privacy Compliance When AI Changes Everything.” During the episode, Clutter explained how her background—first in the NGO community and later as Chief Privacy Officer at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security—informs her current work helping companies launch innovative products and services, while also addressing privacy, security, and AI-related challenges across various sectors.
Clutter’s discussion with podcast hosts Justin and Jodi Daniels focused, in part, on the growing number of states that have enacted comprehensive privacy legislation (particularly Maryland’s unique privacy law, effective October 1, 2025) and how companies doing business in those states, or with a customer base spanning multiple jurisdictions, are faced with a patchwork of laws that differ in their enforcement regime and the rights they afford consumers.
Additionally, Clutter underscored the game-changing nature of AI in connection with privacy-related risks for companies lacking robust AI governance policies and protocols. As more employees use public AI tools, the more likely their inputs are to include confidential, personal, or proprietary information. Hence the importance of carefully vetting each AI application, as well as your contractual terms with vendors, to determine how input data will be processed, stored, used, and shared.
One overarching theme throughout the episode was the need to integrate privacy and security considerations into products and services from the initial design phase rather than treating them as afterthoughts. This proactive approach, Clutter noted, is essential for organizations to effectively manage the complex intersection of regulatory compliance, operational efficiency, and AI innovation in today’s data-intensive business environment.
Listen to the full episode, available here.