In an attempt to understand what the people want in terms of the future of consumer digital technology Microsoft surveyed 13,000 people from Brazil, Canada,China, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Russia, Spain, Sweden, the United Arab Emirates, the U.K. and the U.S., aged 15-54, to compile the Microsoft Digital Trends 2015 report, and the answers show a shift in maturity in how we now view, and what we expect from this technology.

Natasha Hritzuk, senior director of Global Consumer Insights at Microsoft, said in a press release, “Two years ago, we saw that consumers were really concerned about privacy; they wanted to be more anonymous,” adding, ”But what we’re really starting to see is a move away from that privacy conversation, and more of a conversation around controlling the narrative about ‘my digital self.’”

Forty-nine percent of respondees to the survey said that they were aware that there was inherent value in their data, but they don’t quite understand how they can trade that data. While 75 percent of people showed interest on wearable tech, and 60 percent in the Internet of Things, people are concerned about their rights to their information. If they are tracked, which 43 percent of people said they wanted to be in order to gain insights to their habits and work at self-improvement, they also want something in return. Microsoft wrote in a follow-up to the report, “A consumer is unlikely to share personal data when the purpose of doing so, the ‘return on investment’, if you will, is not clear.”

An overwhelming amount of people – 63 percent – in the survey said that always-online must also mean intelligently online, asking that new technology filters content and messages to give the consumer a more “mindful, responsive and empathetic,” experience. These experiences, said 43 percent of people, should meld seamlessly between the physical and digital worlds. 56 percent of people also said that content should less be forced into their lives, and offered more as a bespoke experiences based on their needs and interests.

More than half of the consumers surveyed said that they want more control in how long their information stays online, but also control in shaping their digital identity, what Microsoft called the ‘Right to my Identity’. But at the same time, in something that sounds like an endorsement of the cult novel The Dice Man, in which the call of the dice rules over the decisions of one man, almost half of the respondents asked for something akin to ‘purposeful serendipity’. This means technology offering surprising experiences not always based on habits, but ones that will take people out of their comfort zones.

The full report can be downloaded here.

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