almost makes me want to disable adblock+ to see if me or anyone i know pops up... but not really.

Hey that's my girlfriend's picture!

"Are your friends smarter than you?"

[stolen photo]: [fake IQ score]

This is the simplest problem to correct, if only advertisers would attempt (and FB would allow) a basic intrusion into the personality characteristics of a social network user.

(Cue hollering about privacy rights in 3..2..)

@yagisencho: There should be fine print with the fake IQ test advertisements:

*If you give us your cellphone number in order to receive a fake IQ test result, you are proving how much smarter your friends are than you!

Alas, so it is Facebook that is ruining the sanctity of marriage? Facebook ads have always been quite disturbing to me especially those currently running on my page telling me that "now is a great time to lose weight and get the body that you want" and informing me "how to find a therapist in your area".

@consciousj:

My thoughts exactly. Awesome program. I often forget that many of the sites I go to ever had ads.

Please please Dan and Wife sue facebook over this. Yes it's funny, but Dan and Wife also have a right to be REALLY mad, and someone in marketing at Facebook should get fired and more so this N E V E R happens again.

The CEO should have to listen to Dan and Wife lay into him for half an hour, with all staff on conference call.

How is this really any different than someone getting my boss's face and name and sending me a doctored letter saying "Work Harder" or "You want a raise, get real?" or "You're Fired"?

It is marketing stalking and harassment and I am SICK AND TIRED of marketing aholes in this country NEVER held accountable for intruding into and attacking people's lives just because they want to SELL STUFF.

@Mika Hutchison:

If you're looking to enjoy your internet experience even more, definitely check out readability...

[lab.arc90.com]

@WhoAsked You: the way i see it, if they're a good couple, they can laugh it off and move on. if they are an insecure couple and struggle to stay together when something this silly comes up, they should sue. it'd at least be something they can do together.

@WhoAsked You: Yeah, so the problem with that righteous indignation, dear ironic Facebooker:

FB members sign up to be marketed to (at).
FB members make their private lives available to anyone and everyone, even if "your profile is set to private."

No one intruded into their lives, they made it freely available.

And people continue to throw around a valuation for Facebook in the BILLIONS...

@WhoAsked You: I don't think anyone's life was intruded into or attacked. It's just an automated advertisement.

@undefined: @WhoAsked You: I would agree if the ad were widely dispersed, but it sounds like Dan is the only recipient. And, hopefully, he does find his wife to be hot.

Why do people keep doing these quizzes? Each time I go to one it says I am granting the application access to all of my data, so I decline.

@takes_so_little: Actually, anyone with her as a friend is a potential recipient. Using the image could constitute defimation of character as her friends surely know that she is married, and being listed as a "hot single" could imply that she is cheating on her husband, which is not socially exceptable in most circles, and in many cases can cause problems, especially if one of Dans friends (who also has his wife as a friend) see the Ad and tells dan hsi wife signed up for a dating service.

@WhoAsked You: I don't suppose your wife has listed herself as single or divorced in her profile, has she?

A smart advertiser would at least check on that before using the picture for a singles ad. Assuming they have any control over the matter at all.

@WhoAsked You: You sir are a moron. (Sorry to be blunt.)

Facebook members get an awesome free service and in return they agree to be marketed to using their data. It's all very simple. Did you think Facebook was giving away their service for free?

@weave:

I haven't done any apps because of that. I just message people.

@WhoAsked You: The case wouldn't stand. Facebook offers the option to remove your profile photo from those ads. I suggest Dan and his wife enable that option.

Yesterday while reading an e-mail from my mom about a family friend who'd just lost about 50 lbs. due to cancer treatment I noticed a Google ad to the left...you guessed it, "LOSE WEIGHT FAST!"

If you go to the privacy setting, to News Feed & Wall, then to Social Ads, you can opt out.

Facebook occasionally pairs advertisements with relevant social actions from a user's friends to create Social Ads. Social Ads make advertisements more interesting and more tailored to you and your friends. These respect all privacy rules. You may opt out of appearing in your friends' Social Ads below.

You can show "only my friends" or "nobody"

I would hope that this also covers the usage of one's private photos for advertisements to their friends as well.

@Parapraxis: i'm still glad this article was written, because i wouldn't have known about this at all otherwise.
interestingly enough when i looked in preferences at the 'social ads' area, the selectable areas to turn this off were invisible until i disabled adblock+... just a way for facebook to essentially say, "if you disable ads, you don't need to be able to see or change what we do with your info, because you won't see it anyway".

@veg-o-matic: This needs to be restated.

@WhoAsked You: How dare a voluntary, non-vital, ad-supported site "intrude" upon information freely and willingly given to it. This isn't a credit card or a medical records database...it's a freaking social networking that owns and may sell/share your information at will.

Frankly, in this case, the OP stupidly took one of those crazy Facebook app quizzes -- the kind that explicitly tells you that just by taking the thing, you agree that third-parties have free range to all information in and attached to your profile.

You lose for common sense.

So you mean hot singles really aren't waiting for me? Damn.

this happened to me and my gf's pick popped up. i chuckled but didn't think enough to take a screenshot. oh wells. you win at the internets.

This does bring up an interesting point. If anyone Dan or his wife knows get that same ad with her picture, it would imply that Dan's wife is a member of this particular dating service and that she is possibly listed as single.

Do Facebook's terms of use allow your pictures to be used in third-party advertisements to other users?

@Hate_Brian_Club_I'mNotOnlyThePresidentI'mAClient: I keep e-mailing people about my baby's acid reflux and gas, so all my google ads are for Mylicon. Which is great stuff, but it is kinda creeping me out, much more stalkery than I usually find the google ads!

@chemmy: Thank you for posting this.

I've always said that married guys with hot wives should be willing to share with the less fortunate.

The first thing that came into my mind was the Pina Colada Song

+ Watch video

I didn't think about my lady, I know that sounds kind of mean.
But me and my old lady, had fallen into the same old dull routine.
So I wrote to the paper, took out a personal ad.
And though I'm nobody's poet, I thought it wasn't half-bad.

"Yes, I like Pina Coladas, and getting caught in the rain.
I'm not much into health food, I am into champagne.
I've got to meet you by tomorrow noon, and cut through all this red tape.
At a bar called O'Malley's, where we'll plan our escape."

So I waited with high hopes, then she walked in the place.
I knew her smile in an instant, I knew the curve of her face.
It was my own lovely lady, and she said, "Oh, it's you."
And we laughed for a moment, and I said, "I never knew"..

"That you liked Pina Coladas, and getting caught in the rain.
And the feel of the ocean, and the taste of champagne.
If you like making love at midnight, in the dunes of the cape.
You're the love that I've looked for, come with me, and escape."

"If you like Pina Coladas, and getting caught in the rain.
And the feel of the ocean, and the taste of champagne.
If you like making love at midnight, in the dunes of the cape.
You're the love that I've looked for, come with me, and escape."

solution: get off facebook and stop putting personal photos of yourself and info of yourself out there

That's not a Facebook ad, it was an ad by whatever quiz/app Dan was using.

@WhoAsked You:

But this wasn't a Facebook ad. It was an ad from the Quiz Dan gave permissions to.

Well, at least it wasn't his daughter...

So is Dan's wife available or what? Get back to me on that.

Everyone seems to be missing the point that Dan thought this was amusing. Not a problem, not something to get irate over as an invasion of his privacy, not something to sue FB about. Just the randomly selected ad for a dating service randomly selected the picture of one of his friends and happened to choose HIS OWN WIFE! What are the odds???

@yagisencho:
At first I fell for those dumb adds. I desperately tried to beat my roommates "IQ" than came to my senses realizing that there is no WAY she could ever score a 135.

@weave: Then why do you keep doing it? It's just going to say the same thing every time.

Wasn't some one trying to sue match.com or something for having empty profiles or non-existent users to lour people in? Wouldn't this be the same?

Lets say i sign up for that particular person that face book told me was single to find out they didn't really belong to that site....

@consciousj: I have an even BETTER idea!!! How about kill the revenue stream for all the webpages you like, so that they can't afford to remain in business!!! Awesome idea, right consumerist?????

@yagisencho: one of those made me really sad because it listed like 5 friends Genius->Dumb, and I really liked the "dumb" friend. Stupid Facebook, insulting my friends.

@The_IT_Crone: There's also the, "Your secret crush thinks your IQ is 95!" I assume my secret crush must be my husband, and I'm very insulted that he would think I'm below average.

Woo, consumerist now has a "swinging" tag!

Am glad Dan held a level head about all this.

I know of vindictive husbands that might have gone postal upon seeing their wives' pictures posted.

Looks like Facebook is trying hard to be the next MySpace. (Not a good thing ).

@Radi0logy:
What an irrelevant comment. I use adblock because I don't click on ads, and don't want to see them. Consumerist (sorry!) makes $0 off of me if I have or don't have adblock installed.

I am assuming you have subscribed to Consumer Reports, and donated to the tip jar, and click on every ad. Thanks for allowing this blog to continue.

@omgwtflolbbqbye: Actually, it's a clever scheme by Dan's wife to see if he'll click the "continue" button.

@Eyebrows McGee (now with more baby!): Hey, eyebrows - if the baby has lots of acid reflux issues *and* you're using some formula in your feedings, ask about possibly adding rice to each bottle. Did the trick with our youngest.