This, essentially, was a trick the old FBI used to get up to - documenting analogue sexual encounters and filing away the photos in case they proved useful in undermining (or threatening to undermine) someone who was proving a nuisance. Word was that J Edgar Hoover (for it was he) had enough material to end the Kennedy presidency well before it was cut short.

So the idea that the NSA might find the Web tracks to porn sites useful for similar reasons shouldn’t come as a surprise. The idea here is to target particular islamic ‘radicalizers’ whose private sexual proclivities had clearly parted company with their outward philosophies.

“Radicalizers appear to be particularly vulnerable in the area of authority when their private and public behaviors are not consistent,” argues one of the leaked documents.

So the latest Snowden allegation is that the agency was storing up Web visit data to discredit its enemies as it cheerily admitted to the Huff Post when doorstepped on the documents which exposed the practice.

"Without discussing specific individuals, it should not be surprising that the US Government uses all of the lawful tools at our disposal to impede the efforts of valid terrorist targets who seek to harm the nation and radicalize others to violence," the Huffington Post says Shawn Turner, director of public affairs for National Intelligence, told it in an email.

So we can trust the agency to collect click trails and only use them to discredit those who American officials agree are really, really nasty. Nice. Just like the old days.