Facebook, the social networking website, has faced new questions about its privacy policy after an American user discovered a picture of his wife illustrating an advertisement for a "hot singles" dating site.The advertisement was sent to Peter Smith, from Lynchburg, Virginia, while he was browsing Facebook himself.
It read: "Hey Peter. Hot singles are waiting for you!!" alongside a picture of a woman who looked strangely familiar.
A brief investigation established that a Facebook advertiser had lifted the photo of his wife, Cheryl, a 44-year-old business consultant, from her profile on the site without her permission.
"Fortunately he has a sense of humour. Otherwise it could have played out very differently," said Mrs Smith on her blog.
An embarrassed Facebook responded by disabling two advertising networks which it said had violated its terms of service.
The US company was also forced to issue a statement denying that it had changed its privacy policy and distancing itself from the practice of using photos without consent.
The privacy of Facebook users has been a long-running concern as the company attempted to create highly-targeted advertising based on the online habits of members.
In 2007, the site had to abandon its practice of sharing users' purchases with other Facebook members following a protest.
More recently it had to go back on a change to its terms of service after another protest over privacy fears.
In Cheryl Smith's case, she had failed to switch off an obscure setting on her Facebook page that allows the company to use a member's information in adverts sent to his or her friends