Cheryl Smith discovered, the hard way, that the Facebook privacy default for “Facebook ads” is it’s ok to put my profile image in an ad for my friends to see. Huh?

Facebook occasionally pairs advertisements with relevant social actions from a user’s friends to create Facebook Ads. Facebook 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’ Facebook Ads below.

Here’s how to change that to “don’t ever use my profile picture in a Facebook ad“:

1. Login To Facebook
2. Click “Settings -> Privacy”
3. Select “News Feed and Wall”
4. Select the “Facebook Ads” tab
5. Change the dropdown from “my friends” to “no one”
6. Save

Note: this post has been rendered moot by new Facebook privacy settings, Dec 2009.