Apparently, the NSA knowing what you ate for lunch and how your kitten is doing is vital for protecting the land of the free from those nasty Muslim terrorists who seem to be a national obsession from a country which tends to grow its own Christian and right-wing based nut-job style terrorism.

Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly told Congress that tourists who want to visit the United States could be asked to hand over their social-media passwords to officials as part of enhanced security checks.

"We want to get on their social media, with passwords: What do you do, what do you say? If they don't want to cooperate then you don't come in."

That puts a bit of a damper on those just wanting to visit the US to go to Disneyland or shop.

After telling Congress that was what he was doing, Kelly, a Trump appointee, stressed that asking for people's passwords was just one of "the things that we're thinking about" and that none of the suggestions were concrete.

He said that under existing vetting processes officials "don't have a lot to work with," relying on the applicant's documentation and asking them questions about their background. Basically admitting that they were there to overthrow the US government.

This was even more problematic when dealing with so-called "failed states" such as Syria or Somalia, where infrastructure and record-keeping has been degraded by conflict.

"When someone says, 'I'm from this town and this was my occupation,' [officials] essentially must take the word of the individual. I frankly don't think that's enough, certainly President Trump doesn't think that's enough. So we've got to maybe add some additional layers."

As well as asking people for their passwords, Kelly said he was looking at trying to obtain people's financial records.

"We can follow the money, so to speak. How are you living, who's sending you money? It applies under certain circumstances, to individuals who may be involved in on the payroll of terrorist organisations."

Of course, you can always say that your financial records are being investigated by the tax authorities and cannot be revealed at the moment. Apparently that is the presidential excuse so it should work for everyone else.

Obtaining visitors' passwords was considered by top officials at the Department of Homeland Security under the Obama administration, but the policy was never adopted. This was probably because it was too silly for words.