Alexandria “Lexi” Lutz is a privacy attorney and the Founder of Opt-Inspire, Inc., a nonprofit dedicated to helping seniors and youth build digital confidence and avoid online scams. By day, she serves as Senior Corporate Counsel at Nordstrom, advising on privacy, cybersecurity, and AI across the retail and technology landscape.

Online scams are becoming more sophisticated, targeting older adults with devastating financial consequences that often reach tens of thousands of dollars with little recourse. From tech support fraud to AI-driven deepfakes that mimic loved ones’ voices, these scams prey on isolation, fear, and digital inexperience. Many families struggle to protect their aging parents and grandparents, especially when conversations about digital risks are met with resistance from loved ones. How can we bridge the digital literacy gap across generations and empower seniors to navigate these evolving threats?

The urgency is real. In 2024, seniors lost nearly $5 billion to scams, a 43 percent increase from the previous year. Scammers are using voice cloning, fake emergencies, and fear-based messaging to pressure people into giving up money or sensitive personal information. Education can be a powerful defense, and that's why Opt-Inspire delivers engaging, volunteer-led workshops tailored to senior living communities, teaching practical skills like recognizing fake emails and enabling two-factor authentication. Protecting aging loved ones against technology and AI-driven scams requires proactive and hands-on education. Opt-Inspire equips seniors with the tools and knowledge to stay safe online through engaging, community-based seminars. The nonprofit delivers in-person and volunteer-led workshops tailored to senior living communities, addressing both technical literacy and emotional manipulation tactics. Through scripts, visuals, and a "Make It Personal" toolkit with conversation starters, Opt-Inspire also equips families with resources to discuss digital safety with loved ones in a constructive and relatable way.

In this episode of She Said Privacy/He Said Security, Jodi and Justin Daniels talk with Alexandria (Lexi) Lutz, Senior Corporate Counsel at Nordstrom and Founder of Opt-Inspire, about building digital confidence among seniors. Lexi shares how a personal family experience inspired her to launch a nonprofit focused on preventing elder fraud. She delves into the most common scams targeting older adults today, including government impersonation, romance cons, and AI-generated deepfakes. Lexi emphasizes the importance of proactive education, enabling two-factor authentication, and weekly family check-ins. She also offers practical advice and resources for privacy professionals and family members alike who want to make a positive impact.

Anne Bradley is the Chief Customer Officer at Luminos. Anne helps in-house legal, tech, and data science teams use the Luminos platform to manage the automated AI risk, compliance, and approval processes, statistical testing, and legal documentation. Anne also serves on the Board of Directors of the Future of Privacy Forum, a nonprofit that serves as a catalyst for privacy leadership and scholarship, advancing principled data practices in support of emerging technologies.

AI is being integrated into everyday business functions, from diagnosing cancer to translating conversations and powering customer service chatbots and autonomous vehicles. While these tools deliver value, they also bring privacy, security, and ethical risks. As organizations dive into adopting AI tools, they often do so before performing risk assessments, establishing governance, and implementing privacy and security guardrails. Without safeguards and internal processes in place, companies may not fully understand how the tools function, what data they collect, or the risk they carry. So, how can companies efficiently assess and manage AI risk as they rush to deploy new tools?

Managing AI risk requires governance and the ability to test AI tools before deploying them. That’s why companies like Luminos provide a platform to help companies manage and automate the AI risk compliance approval processes, model testing, and legal documentation. This platform allows teams to check for toxicity, hallucinations, and AI bias even when an organization uses high-risk tools like customer-facing chatbots. Embedding practical controls, like pre-deployment testing and assessing vendor risk early, can also help organizations implement AI tools safely and ethically.

In this episode of She Said Privacy/He Said Security, Jodi and Justin Daniels speak with Anne Bradley, Chief Customer Officer at Luminos, about how companies can assess and mitigate AI risk. Anne explains the impact of deepfakes on public trust and the need for a regulatory framework to reduce harm. She shares why AI governance, AI use-case risk assessments, and statistical tools are essential for helping companies monitor outputs, reduce unintended consequences, and make informed decisions about high-risk AI deployments. Anne also highlights why it’s important for legal and compliance teams to understand business objectives driving an AI tool request before evaluating its risk.

Nick Oldham is the Chief Operations Officer, USIS, and Global Chief Risk, Privacy and Compliance Officer at Equifax Inc. A forward-thinking legal and operations executive, Nick has a proven track record of driving large-scale transformations by integrating legal expertise with strategic operational leadership. He oversees all enterprise-wide second-line functions, leading initiatives to embed AI, enable data-driven decision-making, and deliver innovative, compliant solutions across a $1.9B business unit. His focus is on building efficient, scalable systems that align with both compliance standards and long-term strategic goals.

Many companies are rushing to adopt AI tools without adequately training their workforce on how to use them responsibly. As AI becomes embedded in daily business operations, the biggest risk isn’t the technology itself, but the lack of human understanding around how AI works and what it can do. When teams struggle to understand the differences between machine learning and generative AI, it creates risks and makes it harder to establish appropriate privacy and security guardrails. Human training is AI's greatest weakness and strength, and closing that gap involves rethinking how companies educate and train employees at every level.

The responsible use of AI depends on human judgment. Companies need to embed privacy education, critical thinking, and AI risk awareness into training programs from the start. Employees should be taught how to ask questions, evaluate model behavior, and recognize when personal information is being misused. AI literacy should also extend beyond the workplace. Introducing it in high school or even earlier helps prepare future professionals to navigate complex AI tools and make thoughtful, responsible decisions.

In this episode of She Said Privacy/He Said Security, Jodi and Justin Daniels speak with Nick Oldham, Chief Operations Officer, USIS, and Global Chief Risk, Privacy and Compliance Officer at Equifax, about the role of human training in AI literacy. Nick breaks down the components of AI literacy, explains why everyone needs a foundational understanding, and emphasizes the importance of prioritizing privacy awareness when using AI tools. He also highlights ways to embed privacy and security into AI governance programs and provides actionable steps organizations can take to strengthen AI literacy across teams.