'We Know Where You Are' Technology

foxnews.com

Beware of that smartphone in your hand: It might be telling more about you than you'd like.

While a smartphone has become a communications must-have, offering services such as GPS location, Internet access and more, it's also gathering information about you -- data being marketed by your cellular provider to advertisers and other commercial services.

And that fact came as a shock to most consumers contacted by FoxNews.com, who had no idea their cell phone was anything but private.

“I feel violated, that they sell my information without me knowing," said Rupert Prout of Fresno, Calif. "I feel that they shouldn’t have the power and ability to do that.”

“I don’t love the idea of people selling information about me, trying to manipulate what I do in order to make a profit,” agreed Michaela Crib of Fresno, Calif.

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Beware China's 'honeytrap' spies

artemis.theweek.com

According to intelligence agencies, China is enlisting beautiful women for corporate espionage in the West. How does the dreaded "honeytrap" method work?

According to leaked French intelligence files, China has been employing beautiful female spies — the dreaded "honeytrap" method — and blackmail to steal business secrets from French executives. And it wouldn't be the first time that China has used such tricks to gain access to privileged information. Here, a brief guide: How does the "honeytrap" work?
A beautiful woman wines, dines, and even beds a mark to get information from him, a la many a Bond flick. The French intelligence reports cite a case in which a young Chinese woman slept with a top French researcher at a major pharmaceutical company, a man unaware that she was a spy and that the encounter had been videotaped. "When he was shown the recorded film of the previous night in his hotel room... he proved highly cooperative," says an intelligence official.

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Hilton Paid Starwood $75 Million in Espionage Settlement

online.wsj.com

Hilton Worldwide Inc. paid $75 million last year to Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide as part of a settlement agreement in a corporate-espionage lawsuit, according to a person familiar with the matter.

In its earnings statement Thursday, Starwood said it received the money in a corporate settlement in December but didn't identify Hilton. Still, the legal settlement with Hilton was the only one Starwood reached that month.

Both parties reported last year that they had settled the lawsuit but didn't disclose the financial terms of the agreement.

The settlement put to an end a dispute that had rattled the normally staid hotel world. In 2009, Starwood filed a suit that accused Hilton officials of stealing confidential Starwood documents to develop a new boutique-style chain that would appeal to modern tastes.

Terms of the settlement continue a court order that Hilton cease development of its Denizen lifestyle chain and can't start developing a similar brand for two years.

Hilton also must allow a court-appointed monitor to review its marketing and branding materials to assure the company doesn't benefit from the information obtained from Starwood documents.

In December, Hilton Chief Executive Chris Nassetta said in a statement the company is "committed to fair, ethical and robust competition in the marketplace."

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