Modernizing the privacy tech stack
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 customized for their complex regulatory landscape.
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.
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.
Dexcom selected DataGrail as a new privacy partner for several key reasons:
- Automated request tracking in an intuitive centralized UI
- Informative built-in email alerts throughout the request lifecycle
- Access to the comprehensive DataGrail API to build highly customized automations
Just by changing solutions and taking advantage of the DataGrail Integration Network, Dexcom was able to process requests 3 times faster than they had previously.
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.
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.
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