Personal augmented reality advertising involves detecting a proximity between a participant's mobile device and a viewer's mobile device. An identifier of the participant's mobile device and biometric data that describes the participant have both been made publicly available. The biometric data is obtained in response to detecting the proximity between the participant's mobile device and the viewer's mobile device. A match is detected between the biometric data of the participant and an image captured from a sensor of the viewer's mobile device. In response to detecting the match, the captured image and an advertisement presented with the captured image is presented in the viewer's mobile device. The advertisement is associated with the participant.