Recital 23

Virtual assistants play an increasing role in digitising consumer and professional environments and serve as an easy-to-use interface to play content, obtain information, or activate products connected to the internet. Virtual assistants can act as a single gateway in, for example, a smart home environment and record significant amounts of relevant data on how users interact with products connected to the internet, including those manufactured by other parties, and can replace the use of manufacturer-provided interfaces such as touch screens or smartphone apps. The user may wish to make available such data to third party manufacturers and enable novel smart services. Virtual assistants should be covered by the data access rights provided for in this Regulation. Data generated when a user interacts with a connected product via a virtual assistant provided by an entity other than the manufacturer of the connected product should also be covered by the data access rights provided for in this Regulation. However, only the data arising from the interaction between the user and a connected product or related service through the virtual assistant should be covered by this Regulation. Data produced by the virtual assistant which are unrelated to the use of a connected product or related service are not covered by this Regulation.