BEIJING, July 16 (Xinhuanet) -- Facebook's future success depends on how the social network site protects privacy and provides control to users.

    Rather than expecting total privacy, Chris Kelly, Facebook's chief privacy officer, said users want greater control over who sees their personal information, rather than expecting total privacy, or anonymity.

    "Privacy is beginning to transform from the classic 'right to be left alone' to this notion that 'I want control over my information," Kelly said in an interview on the sidelines of a Fortune Magazine technology conference last week.

    Facebook has seen membership skyrocket 25 percent to more than 30 million since May, when it turned the site into a big tent for outsiders to build software inside. This allows users to engage in online activities while limiting exposure to security pitfalls.

    "We have tried to take a very control-based approach for our users, so Facebook information doesn't leak out on the Web in general," Kelly said. "Privacy, as anonymity, is declining, but privacy, as control, is on the rise."

    The free, advertising-supported site runs a limited number of conventional Web banner ads. But it also is looking at how to offer ads that match people's expressed interests without frightening users that their data will be abused by marketers.

    The site's primary function is to enable a kind of virtual voyeurism that makes it easy for members to post comments, photos and videos about their own lives while keeping tabs on what their network of online friends are up to.

    It does this by offering an automated news feed of what friends are doing on their own Facebook profile pages -- a kind of gossip column among friends.

    (Agencies)