If your date says their favorite word is "passport" and just wants to hear you say it, they might be a spy.

It's become common because of the memes and zeitgeist, but this has been going on in the Valley and other similar industries for years now.

There's a reason most companies have a dedicated internal security team with a mix of executive security, law enforcement, and intel backgrounds.

The reality is so long as you don't divulge work information and/or aren't in a gray area (eg. cheating on a partner, explicitly trading information for monetary or sexual favors) there isn't much that can be used against you by a foreign power.

Also, these honeypots are extremely unsophisticated. The countries that tend to use these the most tend to have a much more decentralized intel gathering ethos driven by humint, as well as by enterprising individuals looking to essentially sell kompromat for opportunity in the old country.

This is actually very common in most white collar industries with a similar impact (eg. high finance, pharma, big law, etc).

Its mildly amusing that the rise of fascist insecure men needs to be put down,nor because their ideas are toxic, but because they're easy bait for foreign influence.