Woman Will Lead San Francisco Police; Airline Traveler Data Should Be Private, Group Says; Indian Police May Monitor Cyber Cafes

Woman Will Lead San Francisco Police

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom said Sunday that he had replaced Chief Alex Fagan with a 26-year veteran who will be first woman to run the police department here, according to a story in the New York Times. The story reports Assistant Chief Heather Fong, 47, will take over as acting chief.

Airline Traveler Data Should Be Private, Group SaysThe Mercury News reports that a public interest group that has fought privacy-threatening projects by Microsoft, Intel and Double Click believes its case against government efforts to obtain airline passenger records could have a far-reaching impact on consumer privacy. The story reports that The Electronic Privacy Information Center plans to file a consumer privacy complaint Wednesday with the U.S. Department of Transportation, alleging that Northwest Airlines violated its policy on passenger privacy when it gave NASA/Ames Research Center in Mountain View information on an untold number of passengers who traveled before and after the Sept. 11 attacks.Indian Police May Monitor Cyber CafesPolice in India have claimed that terrorism fears have compelled them to propose a move that would allow them to monitor activities in the country’s many cyber cafes, according to a story in the Boston Globe. The Globe reports that because relatively few Indians can afford to own a computer, most computer use takes place in cyber cafes.