Yet considering how many people the average social media user is connected to, it is also a great way to ensnare a lot of innocent people who share nothing more than a love of cat photos in a government investigation.

FORBES: Social Network Software Lets Government Predict Your Movements

Some of this is nothing more than innocent, if irritating, grandiosity.

ECONOMIST: Lexington

This time, the world's most magnificent democracy is struggling against vile terrorists who thought nothing of slaughtering thousands of innocent civilians and yet the administration has somehow contrived to turn America's own human-rights record into a subject of legitimate debate.

ECONOMIST: Torture

The judge, Mr Justice Forbes, said that there was nothing in any of the evidence to suggest anything other than the innocent passing on of information.

BBC: Fallon 'can ride again in 2009'

Merely wishing away human sexual behaviour does nothing for the potential victims of AIDS, many of whom are innocent under even the most moralistic definition of that word.

ECONOMIST: The pope in Africa

Nothing any of us can say could ever adequately express our feelings for the innocent victims of this appalling crime, but our thoughts are with them and their families.

FORBES: After Aurora's Tragedy, Warner Bros. Understood The Power Of Silence

Faced with the horror of a terrorist attack that took 20 innocent young lives, America must have the courage to do nothing.

FORBES: The Sandy Hook Horror Begs Us To Have The Courage To Do Nothing