Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society. Starting in 2012, the Supreme Court's approach to digital privacy has undergone a seismic shift. In a series of recent cases on location tracking and cellular phone searches, the court has recognized that, when it comes to big data, old rules about our expectations of privacy may not apply. Because information can now be gathered, stored, and analyzed cheaply, the Supreme Court has recently found that Fourth Amendment protections must be carefully recalibrated to prevent unchecked police power. Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, however, has exhibited a contrasting and outdated understanding of privacy. As important questions come before the court in the future--on police drone surveillance, on the use of facial recognition software, on government access to the vast troves of different kinds of digital data companies hold on us--it's crucial to understand where Kavanaugh stands.

Changing security concerns following the dismantling of Islamic State and rising geopolitical tensions have caused European countries to shift defense efforts from far-away conflicts to homeland security, resulting in demand for drones that can be safely integrated into civilian airspace to, for example, monitor border crossings, Elbit officials said.

Last month, while tracking dark web marketplaces, threat intel team Insikt Group of the security firm Recorded Future discovered that someone was selling alleged US military documents. A hacker was asking for "$150 to $200" for non-classified yet sensitive materials on the US Air Force's Reaper drone, and posted an additional bundle of information on US Army vehicles and tactics for sale. According to Insikt's report, the team verified the documents after contacting the hacker. They learned that the intruder used an FTP vulnerability in Netgear routers that's been known for two years to break into a computer at the Creech Air Force Base in Nevada. The hacker took documents about the MQ-9 Reaper drone, including maintenance course books and a list of airmen assigned to fly it.

The hacker sought buyers for maintenance documents about the MQ-9 Reaper drone, a remotely controlled aerial vehicle used by the Pentagon and other parts of the government to conduct offensive strikes or reconnaissance and surveillance operations. Discovery of the attempted sale of the stolen documents comes amid heightened concern about how U.S. military secrets may be insufficiently protected from hackers. Military officials said last month that the Defense Department's inspector general was investigating a major security breach after Chinese hackers allegedly stole data pertaining to submarine warfare, including plans to build a supersonic antiship missile. There was no evidence that the hacker who acquired the Reaper drone documents was affiliated with a foreign country, or that he was intentionally seeking to obtain military documents, said Andrei Barysevich, a senior threat researcher at Recorded Future, the U.S.-based cybersecurity firm that spotted the attempted sale. Instead, the hacker scanned large parts of the internet for misconfigured Netgear routers and exploited a two-year-old known vulnerability, involving default login credentials, to steal files from compromised machines.

Google parent Alphabet has two new businesses under its name. The firm announced on Wednesday that it's'graduating' Project Loon and Project Wing from moonshots to full-fledged businesses at Alphabet. Project Loon, its internet-bearing balloon initiative, and Project Wing, its drone delivery service, were launched in 2013 and 2014, respectively, as part of its research-and-development lab Google X. Alphabet's Google X announced on Wednesday that its moonshots Project Loon and Project Wing would'graduate' to full companies. Now, Loon and Wing will be included in Alphabet's'Other Bets' category, which includes former Google X moonshots like deep learning research project Google Brain, life sciences research arm Verily as well as self-driving car startup Waymo, among others. The CEO of Loon will be Alastair Westgarth, former CEO of antenna company Quintel, while longtime Google employee James Ryan Burgess is the CEO of Wing, Google X head Astro Teller announced in a blog post.

The U.S. navy has said that from January 2016 to August 2017 there was an average of 2.5 "unsafe" or "unprofessional" interactions per month between U.S. Navy and Iranian maritime forces, including an Iranian drone flying near a U.S. Navy warplane and Iranian military boat sailing close to a US Navy vessel. Tehran has accused U.S. forces of provocation.

Google parent company Alphabet's internet-delivering balloon service and its drone delivery project have graduated from X programs to full-fledged businesses at Alphabet. From here, Alphabet says that Loon will maintain its mission of working with carriers worldwide to deliver internet to underserved areas. Wing will similarly continue building out its network of delivery UAVs, not to mention its air-traffic control system for the unmanned aircraft. And since the companies are their own entities now, they each have an official leader. Alastair Westgarth will serve as CEO of Loon, while James Ryan Burgess will fill the same role at Wing.

Drones come in many shapes and sizes. At their most affordable, drones are fun flying toys. And for industrial uses or professional filmmakers, you've got specialist machines that can run well into tens of thousands of dollars. Parrot's new $700 Anafi falls somewhere in between, balancing a decent camera and plenty of features with a price tag that isn't prohibitively expensive. DJI is the dominant player in drones right now.

Manuals on Reaper drones and details on how to defeat improvised explosive devices were leaked and it appears military personnel were hacked, according to cybersecurity researchers. The dark web drug trade might have depleted in recent months, but all manner of other black market trades continue to thrive in the underbelly of the internet. On Wednesday, researchers at cybercrime tracker Recorded Future reported that a hacker was trying to flog documents about the Reaper drone used across federal government agencies for between $150 and $200. It appeared they'd successfully hacked into at least two computers belonging to U.S. military personnel and the theft could have a significant impact on American campaigns abroad, Recorded Future warned. The company spoke directly with the hacker, learning the documents had been obtained by using a previously-disclosed vulnerability in Netgear routers.

The tech giant recently filed a patent for a concept device that's equipped with a conveyor belt capable of sorting and transferring items. It could help Amazon tackle many problems related to delays and inefficiency in traditional warehouses. Amazon filed a patent for a concept device that's equipped with a conveyor belt capable of sorting and transferring items. The contraption includes two separate robotic devices that each require separate controllers that can communicate back and forth. A controller for the first device communicates with a controller for the second device, sending signals as to where the robotic instrument should go next.