Inside Marketing with MarketSurge

Welcome back to Inside Marketing with MarketSurge — your front-row seat to the boldest ideas and smartest strategies shaping modern marketing.
In today’s episode, host Reed Hansen, Chief Growth Officer at MarketSurge, dives into a topic most businesses know they should care about… but often don’t until it’s too late:
AI, data privacy, and consumer trust — and how those three forces are colliding right now.
Reed is joined by Andy Sambandam, a proven entrepreneur, technologist, and privacy innovator. Andy is the Founder & CEO of Clarip, where he’s leading the charge in redefining how brands manage consumer data across digital channels. Under Andy’s leadership, Clarip has built a patent-pending, AI-driven platform that helps enterprises turn big data into smart, compliant, and trustworthy data.
Together, Reed and Andy unpack:
  • Why data privacy is no longer optional — for businesses of any size
  • The biggest misconceptions brands have about consumer privacy
  • How AI introduces new privacy risks most companies aren’t prepared for
  • Why transparency is the key to earning (and keeping) consumer trust
  • How consent management can actually improve marketing performance, not limit it
  • Which industries are most at risk — and why every business should care
  • What the future of AI governance and privacy technology looks like
Andy also shares why he believes “privacy is freedom,” how modern data ecosystems quietly share information across hundreds of vendors, and how AI can be both a risk and a solution when implemented responsibly.
If you’re a marketer, founder, operator, or privacy-conscious leader trying to navigate AI without putting your brand (or customers) at risk, this is a must-listen episode.
🔗 Connect & Learn More
🎯 MarketSurge
🧠 Clarip — AI-Driven Data Privacy & Consent Management
Want to stay ahead of what’s actually working in marketing right now?
Head to MarketSurge.io and see how we help businesses grow smarter, faster, and louder.
Because your next breakthrough shouldn’t be a guess. 🚀

Creators and Guests

Host
Reed Hansen
Reed Hansen is a seasoned digital marketing executive with a proven track record of driving business growth through innovative strategies. As the Chief Growth Officer at MarketSurge, he focuses on leveraging AI-powered marketing tools to help businesses scale efficiently. Reed's expertise spans from leading startups to Fortune 500 companies, making him a recognized authority in the digital marketing space. His unique ability to combine data-driven insights with creative solutions has been instrumental in achieving remarkable sales growth for his clients. ​

What is Inside Marketing with MarketSurge?

Welcome to Inside Marketing with MarketSurge — your front-row seat to the boldest business insights, marketing breakthroughs, and entrepreneurial real talk.

Hosted by Reed Hansen, Chief Growth Officer at MarketSurge and a digital marketing veteran who's helped scale everything from scrappy startups to Fortune 500 giants, this podcast dives deep into what’s really moving the needle in today’s marketing world. Find us at Marketsurge.io

Each week, we’ll break down the latest marketing and business news (minus the fluff), explore tech trends you actually need to know, and feature unfiltered conversations with the most interesting minds in entrepreneurship and marketing.

Whether you're a founder, a marketer, or just a curious hustler looking to level up, this is where growth happens—loudly, smartly, and with just the right amount of sass.

Subscribe, tune in, and let’s scale something legendary. 🚀

Speaker: Welcome to Inside
Marketing With Market Surge.

Your front row seat to the
boldest ideas and smartest

strategies in the marketing game.

Your host is Reed Hansen, chief
Growth Officer at Market Surge.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Hello
and welcome back to Inside

Marketing with Market Surge.

Today's episode is one I've been excited
about because we're tackling something

businesses know, they should care about,
but often don't until it's too late.

We're talking about AI data privacy, and
consumer trust, and how those three forces

are colliding in ways that every marketer,
founder and operator needs to understand.

I'm, joined by Andy Samand Dam, a
proven entrepreneur and innovator

who's built and scaled multiple Tech
Ventures, Andy is the founder and

CEO of Clari, where he's leading the
charge redefining how brands manage

consumer data across digital channels.

Under Andy's leadership, Clara has
developed a patent pending AI driven

platform that helps enterprises
turn big data into smart data.

If you've ever wondered how brands can
keep using data without losing trust, why

privacy regulations keep getting harder
to navigate, or how AI is changing the

rules of the game behind the scenes.

This

Andy: for

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge:
is the episode for you Andy.

Welcome to Inside Marketing
with Market Surge.

Andy, you've spent many years
building at the intersection of

where data, ai, and, privacy meet.

What originally got you into this
space, and why do you think it's

become more of a important topic now?

Andy: I spent pretty much my
entire career in technology and

engineering, so I am always involved
in, latest and greatest in tech.

I spent 20 plus years, writing
software and privacy is

something that's personal to me.

It's near and dear to my heart.

So I'm one of those good people
that questions Hey, where do you

need my social security number?

When you go to the doctor's right?

The only reason they ask you for that
is, in case your insurance company

doesn't pay, they can send you to a
collection agency or something like that.

Privacy is something
that's always, close to me.

I think we shouldn't share
data that we don't have to.

End of the day, privacy is freedom.

We all live in a digital world.

And there's so much data
collection and sharing going on.

If we don't have a choice, if
we don't have control, then that

data can be used against us.

Not in our favor.

plus, being in tech, being in innovation,
AI is something that's evolving.

And obviously, I'm
interested in that as well.

And that's how we're at
the intersection here.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Absolutely.

From your vantage point where you
stand, you're deeply immersed in

this, you're a leader in this space.

What do you think most businesses and
brands are misunderstanding about data

privacy in the current environment?

And are there things that are
getting wrong or just ignoring.

Andy: or three things that I would say.

Companies are getting it wrong, and
also meaning when you think about

companies, you'll have to probably,
put them in two different buckets.

One would be the small to medium
sized businesses, and the other bucket

would be the very large companies
that, fortune 1000 companies.

Obviously the level of maturity in
Fortune 1000 companies is much higher.

They understand the need for privacy
better than the smaller and medium-sized

companies, but in, in a, regardless,
there is a misconception that,

hey, nobody cares about privacy,
or people don't care about privacy.

Right?

That's actually not entirely true
because, if you really look at the data,

just looking at the data we process
about, 22 to 25 billion privacy related

requests on our platform every month.

So that's about 700 to
800 million per day.

So if nobody is caring about privacy,
how come all of these privacy related

requests are going through our system?

We're processing them, we're
completing them, fully on autopilot.

It could be somebody interacting with a
cookie banner, or it could be somebody

saying, do not sell or share my data.

A lot of these states have passed privacy
laws, so starting with California,

Colorado, Connecticut Virginia, there's
about 20 plus states that have their own

Laws right now on top of GDPR that
came out a few years ago, or the eu.

So these laws right, give
certain rights to people.

People can go to a company and say
for example, you can go to Walmart

and say, Hey, my name is Reid.

Show me what data you have on me, or
delete my data or do not sell my data.

So when you do that now, Walmart
or this company has an obligation

to fulfill your request.

If they don't, then you can actually,
either sue them or go to the

ags office and make a complaint.

So that becomes a bigger problem for them.

So it's the first thing
would be businesses.

They need to understand.

People do care about privacy.

There are privacy laws, right?

That's gonna force you to comply.

Otherwise, the fines are pretty steep.

So that's the very first
thing I would start with.

But also another thing, businesses
miss out is transparency, right?

So you don't need to put a pretty lengthy
privacy notice and then hide behind this

and think, you, you're gonna be okay.

But rather you should
try to be transparent.

You can easily, come up with a
simple privacy notice or a privacy

center to demonstrate what data
you collect, who you are sharing

that with and how you use the data.

And that's all it's needed.

If you can do that, and be transparent,
people are willing to give consent

and they will share the data with you.

Yes, there's gonna be a small percentage
of people that will not want to share,

but the majority of the people still
like to share because you are offering

them something in return, right?

That are customer experience better
targeting or better ads or better content.

So that's that transparency that
a lot of times companies miss out.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Now.

Small and medium sized businesses, are
they equally liable for these problems?

You mentioned there's a
distinction between the two.

What might be some
differences in those concerns?

And I just wanna make
sure I understood that.

Andy: Certain states go by.

the annual revenue a company's making.

Certain states go by the number of
customers or the number of personal

information you have, the volume
of records and things like that.

So if you think about that from
the perspective, say for example,

in many states, you would see.

A revenue threshold of 25
million US dollars per year.

So if you're making anything
about that, then you're gonna be

automatically subjected to that.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Okay.

Andy: a very small, mom and pop restaurant
probably doesn't need to care much about

this or the, they're not subject to the
law, but in general, even they are using

different third party apps and vendors
and payment platforms and whatnot.

So it's always a good practice to
have a privacy policy and, get consent

for the processing you're gonna
do about somebody else's personal

information, and also have some basic
security guardrails around the data.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Okay.

L let's talk about the AI aspect of this.

it introduces so you know, a lot of
what you've talked about, I think

easily we can conjure up how like
web traffic and the use of personal

information in marketing and profiling.

But AI in the last few years has
introduced a new wrinkle or complexity.

How can a brand or a company use AI
effectively without breaching privacy?

What are some of those issues
that AI has introduced?

Andy: think about ai, right?

So you gotta be very careful in terms
of what data you are sharing because

often, people tend to share private
information that could be going to ai.

But the problem for you as
a company owner would be.

If you don't have consent, that
can become a problem, right?

Because there's really no proper
privacy guardrails when it comes to ai.

That information can be used to train
other models and imagine your information,

like your personal information, the
address where you live credit card

numbers or source security numbers.

end up in the hands of ai, that could be
used to train other models or all it takes

is a bad actor or threat actor to, ask
the proper questions in the prompt and

trip the AI to produce, information back.

So you really wanna make
sure that what you share.

A good example would be chat bots, right?

Imagine you have a chat bot integrated
on your website and people are, chatting

and going back and forth and it's

Easy for somebody to just actually put
in their personal information on it.

And for the chat bot to consume it.

But then that could be directly
going to AI or making an a PA

call to, open AI or whatnot.

So you wanna make sure that you have
some proper guardrails around it.

Otherwise, you are basically
feeding data into ai.

And in many cases, when you don't have
consent, you would be in violation of

several state level privacy laws as well.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge:
And transparency itself.

How does a brand.

Do that I know there's a lot of disclaimer
language on forms and popups I see

that as a internet user all the time
and, I'm checking terms and conditions.

Are those pretty comprehensive?

Are there things that are being missed or?

There are.

I think you mentioned the chat bots.

I think probably you
need to have a consent

Andy: There are

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge:
inside a chat window.

Andy: Imagine, like from a,

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Yeah.

Andy: you're using all these different
tools, whether it's for, retargeting

or search engine optimization,
or whatever the case may be.

You are using different third party tools.

They're embedded in your mobile
app or on your website itself.

So you've got all these different third
party tags, JavaScripts and pixels and

cookies are part of your ecosystem.

We can actually scan any website
or mobile app and identify what's

going on, what kind of cookies,
beacons, and trackers you have.

Which third party vendors
are collecting data.

Is there a fourth party that's actually
piggybacking on the third party vendor

and collecting data and things like that.

If you think about popular news sites
or any major site you can imagine

when we run the scan, sometimes we
find 200, 300, 400 different vendors.

Imagine you go to a site, I don't know,
C-N-N-E-S-P-N, whatever you name it.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: I.

Andy: you are thinking you're going to
a site, you may think that, okay, maybe

there are a few third party vendors there.

No, there are a few hundred, right?

400, 500 different third party
vendors and technologies are embedded.

In some cases there are fourth,
fifth parties piggybacking

on the third party vendor.

And the behavior data is freely
flowing through in many states.

Even your IP address is considered PII.

PII stands for personally
identifiable information.

So even IP addresses being
captured and sent downstream.

Imagine you have a third party tag
that's embedded on your site, and

all it takes is for that web server
to respond back to this request.

And just by virtue of doing that
they will need to know where are we

sending that data back and they'll
know the IP address automatically.

So you are, without knowing, sharing
your customer's IP address to so

many different third party vendors.

And if you don't have that properly
articulated in your privacy

notice that becomes a problem.

So it's also a little bit harder
because there is so much going on.

Nobody has time to read
the privacy notice.

Imagine how often do you
actually read the They're long.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Yeah.

Andy: Everybody, including
me, we all scroll down and

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Never.

Andy: So our technology actually
simplifies that and shows people,

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Yeah.

Andy: With whom data is going and
how data is being actually shared.

So at least have a layered
approach right on the top layer.

Show a very simple, kindergarten
level, thing on what's going on.

Maybe a level underneath that you can
have a little bit more comprehensive,

maybe a middle school level, but
then all the way down there you

can actually have the full privacy
notice that lists everything you do.

So that kind of gives you, the
full level of transparency.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: So that, that's
a great transition because I'd like

to talk a little bit about Clara now.

You talk about turning
big data into smart data.

I'd love to hear more about the tool is,
and, but first I, I'd ask, is your target

client for this the brand and company, or
is it the consumers to protect themselves?

Andy: companies,

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge:
how is that envisioned?

Andy: market companies

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Okay.

Andy: The same time, we have a very
powerful consent management platform

where we help these companies.

Collect consent and manage consent.

So in a way, indirectly we are helping
consumers as well because now they

can give consent and revoke consent.

And it could be consent for a cookie
or it could be, helping a consumer.

let's say, we could be helping
read our platform is helping.

Go exercise his privacy rights under
any jurisdiction, in the work against a

certain company asking for your data or
deleting your data, whatever that may be.

And as well as, managing and
helping you store the consent.

So we're helping both sides, but
primarily we are working with the large

companies and medium-sized companies.

And we're working with both the compliance
teams or the chief privacy officers as

well as the chief marketing officers
in the case of consent management.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Are there
certain industries or brands that

need to be more careful than others?

Is there like a nature of a certain kind
of business that makes them more at risk

Andy: yeah,

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge:
you'd serve better than others?

I'm just curious, if that's
something you've observed.

Andy: 2018, this is up 2017, I
should say early days of of clear.

We didn't expect this, but we actually
signed up a manufacturing company.

It's a B2B manufacturing
client out of the Midwest.

And we didn't even realize, oh, they would
have data that they would be carrying.

They should care about privacy.

But, privacy touches every
industry you can think of.

Obviously, if you're a B2C company.

In the consumer space, you're probably,
should be paying more close attention.

So retail

Target for us.

There are a lot of companies in
retail that are customers of ours,

financial services, insurance banking
travel and hospitality anything,

e-commerce or internet technology.

Sites publishers.

So they deal with a lot
of customer data, right?

They have a lot of B2C or consumer
traffic, and they collect a lot of data.

So that's where I would
see the biggest risk.

But if you're a construction
company, for example.

You might think, Hey, we're B2B or
we're just a construction company.

But chances are you are still
dealing with employee data, you're

still dealing with that personal
information, banking information,

tax information, things like that.

You still need to pay attention to that.

So it's cross industries, but retail
and segments that are in the consumer

space would be higher risk, I would say.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Okay.

that's helpful.

Let's talk about looking forward.

AI continues to change so many
things in business and the internet

technologies that we interact with.

Do you think that AI will continue
to change and evolve and affect the

way that we need to think, about
privacy and consumer relationships?

Any things coming down the pike

Andy: gonna

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: that

Andy: evolve,

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge:
we should be aware of?

Andy: AI is here to stay.

If you rewind the clock back, I
don't know, 15 18 years or so ago

there was this in the industry.

Obviously I saw your profile.

You've been in the industry long
enough and you know all the ups and

downs, from the Oracle days until.

Beyond, right?

You would see there was this push to

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Yes.

Andy: The cloud was a big thing.

Big data was a big thing.

And back then, people were
saying, oh, cloud is gonna die.

Nobody's gonna move to cloud, but
we knew cloud is here to stay,

It's cloud first now, right?

Cloud native, like they call it.

So AI is not gonna go

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: right.

Andy: to stay.

It's gonna continue to evolve.

we just need to make sure that our
processes and systems adapt with that.

And we manage, security and risk properly.

And the data privacy is also going to
stay because, it's all about data, right?

So data, software is driving
every business you can think of.

It could be an airline, it could
be a hotel or a restaurant, or

it could be just your retailer.

It's software that's
driving business, which is.

predominantly, driven by data.

So the data privacy concept
is gonna continue to remain.

I think, as things evolve, one of
the things you may want to think

about is you could actually use AI to
identify new risk, for example, right?

So dynamic risk detection and
monitoring, or you could use.

AI now to do even better encryption and
anonymization of data you may have in your

ecosystem or an incident response can be,
done better when it's AI driven, right?

And then real time compliance
monitoring around global operations

and all of those things are
things you can do better using ai.

So that's what I would say.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Y and
I can't help But not comment.

You mentioned Oracle and I am old enough
that, I remember Oracle's party line

was the on-prem is the future of data
And we had the whole playbooks talking

about how cloud was just a fad I agree
with your predictions In addition

to looking ahead and being ready for
what's coming next, we also have to be

ready to pivot on very short notice.

things that we expect might always
not come to fruition, but I'm glad

there are people like you that are
really devoted to data privacy.

I think it does make the internet
environment a better place.

our interaction with
corporations and keeps us safe.

So I'm glad that cla up exists.

What's next for cla up?

in light of this, do you see
further growth, like going

deeper in the area or expanding

Andy: question.

Thank

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: like
horizontally into other areas?

Andy: based on what you just
said about Oracle, right?

So you talked about the on-prem,

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Sure.

Andy: and I still remember that yes,

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Yeah.

Andy: true.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Yeah.

Andy: ironically, if you look now,

Oracle is one of the
biggest cloud providers.

and Azure and Google

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Oh, absolutely.

Andy: is a major player
in the cloud space.

So yes.

That, I guess they pivoted as well as

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Absolutely.

It's you tech leader.

You've gotta have a short memory.

Andy: We're growing and we're pretty
excited where the industry is heading

and, innovation is always fun.

But also I think AI
governance is going to evolve.

So we're expanding into other markets.

We're looking at possibly
opening up an office in the eu.

Several international
clients to support some other

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Oh.

Okay.

Andy: European Union.

So we're looking at
opening an office there.

And also, we have a patented technology.

We have additional
patents pending as well.

Some of the analysts and
industry leaders, CIOs.

When they look at our technology
they say, this is eye-opening,

or this is light years.

I could have anything they have seen.

So we wanna be on that, continue
to remain on that space, right?

Be the innovator in privacy technology
and continue to protect customer

data, protect, personal information.

Because I believe privacy
is freedom, right?

That's a mission for us.

And continuing to grow.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Yeah,

Fantastic.

Annie, if anybody listening to this
podcast would like more information,

would like to work with Clara
or learn more from you, where

are the best places to find you?

Andy: and you can contact us or you
can sign up for a demo clear.com/demo

and we'd be able to get in touch with one
of our team members and, we can schedule

a personalized one-on-one demo and also
talk about, what you should be doing.

Let's say if you're coming in and wearing
the marketing hat, we'd be talking a

lot about consent management, how to
engage better with your customers without

violating privacy laws and how to increase
your engagement, things like that.

If you're a privacy officer, then
we could be, helping you comply

with the different privacy laws.

If you're a security officer, we can
help you protect the customer data.

So yeah, just visit clear.com

or sign up for a demo.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge: Okay.

Thanks so much, Annie.

It's been a pleasure.

I really appreciate you reaching out
and I'm glad we've gotten to learn a lot

from you and I'd point anybody concerned
about privacy for their organization

to reach out to you and learn more.

Andy: up.

Reed Hansen, MarketSurge:
Oh, thanks so much.

Alright, we'll see you.

Speaker 2: Want to stay ahead of what's
actually working in marketing right now.

Head over to Market surge.io

and see how we're helping businesses
grow smarter, faster, and louder.

That's market surge.io

because your next breakthrough
shouldn't be a guess.