Modernizing the privacy tech stack

Introduction

As a life-saving medical technology supplier,
Dexcom understands the need to work fast
and innovate. Privacy counsel Eric Lovell &
Sean Kellogg have transformed data privacy
into business value—saving the business
thousands of hours of manual work along the
way—by championing automated solutions
cusomized for their complex regulatory
landscape.

Scaling to support growth

With Dexcom’s previous privacy management
software, fulfilling Data Subject Requests
(DSRs) was highly manual and time consuming.
Request management was not centralized and
the privacy team had to work across many
programs to understand the status of a
request. Dexcom’s privacy team wanted to be
able to allot more time for proactive
reporting and risk mitigation.

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DataGrail user since: 2020
Industry: Med tech
Data Privacy Hero Award Winner

Before 2020, Dexcom’s privacy program was
getting by, but Privacy Counsel Lead Eric Lovell
knew their privacy program couldn’t keep up
with Dexcom’s upcoming exponential growth.

Dexcom selected DataGrail as a new privacy
partner for several key reasons:

1. Automated request tracking in an
   intuitive centralized UI

2. Informative built-in email alerts
   throughout the request lifecycle

3. Access to the comprehensive DataGrail
   API to build highly customized
   automations

Just by changing solutions and taking
dadvantage of the DataGrail Integration Network,
Dexcom was able to process requests 3 times
faster than they had previously.

“Every minute a department spends on a privacy
request, they could have spent on our
life-saving technology. We needed a solution
that would allow us to operate as efficiently as
possible.

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Eric Lovell, Lead Privacy Counsel

Embracing automation every step of the way

While they were already processing requests
much faster, Lovell and Kellogg knew that
between the company’s rapid growth and the
country’s increasingly complex privacy
regulation, especially concerning medical data,
there was more work to be done.

First, Dexcom partnered with DataGrail on
Managed Services, leveraging DataGrail’s
expertise to complete requests an additional
10% faster, and reducing the staff required to
process requests down by an additional 2.

Kellogg next partnered with Dexcom’s robotics
team to build a customized bot using
DataGrail’s API. The approach was mutually
beneficial, ultimately saving Engineering time
while also eliminating risk of human error and
further securing compliance.

The bespoke bot could navigate complex
internal databases and classify data to make
appropriate data deletion decisions the
company could trust and monitor. The solution
saved Dexcom an additional 800-1,200
hours per month across 3 different teams.
With these exponential time savings, the
business’ compliance is protected against any
sudden increases in request volume.
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“DataGrail Managed Services has been a game
changer for us. Our overall efficiency in
responding has increased and all of our
metrics are on the rise.”

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Sean Kellogg, Privacy Counsel

Key Takeaways

Lovell and Kellogg share a few tips for privacy
teams seeking similar outcomes:

First, Kellogg ties his work back to Dexcom’s
overall cultural emphasis on innovation.

Driving privacy back to a business value
helped secure buy-in for major initiatives. He
also stresses the value of finding a privacy
partner flexible enough to collaborate with on
your unique organizational needs.

Second, Kellogg acknowledges that taking the
time to be truly empathetic of his colleagues
allowed Dexcom’s privacy program to become
more effective over time. By noticing and
taking the initiative to address strain
experienced by other teams, Kellogg built
relationships he could call upon for other
privacy initiatives across the business.

Lastly and importantly, Lovell advises the value
of investing in technical solutions to free up
human time for more strategic pursuits.
With so much time spared and confidence in
the results of automation, Dexcom can more
proactively address emerging privacy topics
such as AI governance and beyond.

Dexcom was recognized as The Innovator in
the 2024 Data Privacy Hero Awards.

"DataGrail is more than just a
product. They’re true partners
in our privacy program we
can collaborate with to meet
our goals."

Jeff Dunifon,

Jeff Dunifon, taking the initiative to address strain

Sr. Director, Privacy & Data Security Counsel

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