Smart Speaker Data Donations in Families The Project Rosie Perspective

Today, many families are finding themselves with the option to have their very own assistant at home in the form of a smart speaker. To meet the growing scientific need to better understand how families with young children use these devices at home, we showcase ongoing work that proposes a revised conceptualization of families' smart speaker use based on three important dimensions: how often the smart speaker is used (i.e., frequency), for what it is used (i.e., purpose), and by whom it is used (i.e., form) – so by the parent, the child, or by both together. For the assessment of families' smart speaker use, we combine self-reports of 400 Dutch parents with data donations of their smart speaker log-histories. With this, we not only test for the feasibility of this novel approach under the framework of the GDPR in the EU, but to also draw methodological conclusions about the alignment between self-reported and observed measures of smart speaker use. In addition, we offer an updated typology of different use-patterns across families that can further aid the study of predictors, conditions, and consequences of smart speaker use. Learning from first pilot data and the challenges we have faced, we offer preliminary conclusions and provide suggestions for future work.