New Delhi, June 23 -- All international students applying for non-immigrant US visas - specifically F (academic), M (vocational), and J (exchange visitor) categories - are now required to make their social media profiles public to enable their verification before they are let into the country.

This diktat, effective immediately, has been met with outrage from data privacy experts and legal professionals in India, who argue it constitutes a severe violation of individual privacy and could infringe upon fundamental rights.

The directive, announced by the US Embassy in India on Monday, stipulates that all applicants for these visa categories must adjust their privacy settings on all personal social media accounts to "public." This move, ac...