Microsoft's 'eye in the sky' to watch over national security?

US Defense Department has designs on Virtual Earth…

Microsoft is collaborating with the US National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA), a division of the Department of Defense, on its Virtual Earth technology.

The NGA wants to use the Virtual Earth technology “to provide geospatial support for humanitarian, peacekeeping and national security efforts,” Microsoft said in a statement on Thursday.

In return, the software behemoth hopes to gain from the organisation’s established knowledge of geospatial information and geodetics, the maths and science of measuring portions of the Earth’s topography, magnetic and gravitational variations, and geodynamic phenomenon.

The NGA “provides timely, relevant and accurate imagery, imagery intelligence and geospatial information in support of national security objectives,” according to the government agency’s website.

Read more: silicon.com