http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/rss en-us How much privacy do you have on the web? An independent group called PrivacyChoice has undertaken the formidable effort of assigning a numeric score to popular websites, measuring their published policies and how much tracking they allow. The results are eye-opening.

]]> The Windows 8 Consumer Preview will be available for download on February 29. Why isn’t it called a beta? Blame Google. And Apple. And Microsoft. Especially Microsoft.

]]> Google’s Safe Browsing API is a core security feature of Chrome that Google shares with Firefox and Safari. Now, a security research firm that specializes in measuring the effectiveness of these filters says its most recent data suggest Google is not playing fair with its partners.

]]> Today, Apple released version 1.0.1 of its iBooks Author program. There’s no new code, only a new license agreement. The sloppy language in the original license agreement is cleaned up, but the fundamentals are unchanged: Apple retains exclusive rights to anything an author wants to sell in its new format.

]]> After reading last month’s SEC filings, I was inspired to make some pie charts. Microsoft’s a software company. Apple’s a hardware company. What business is Google in? If you said search, guess again.

]]> Over the past few months, Windows 8 has been publicly demoed and discussed in detail more than any other software program I can remember. Has all that information made you more eager to try Windows 8? Or are you starting to feel post-PC ennui? Vote in my poll, and help me focus my coverage.

]]> Barnes & Noble thought it had a strong defense against allegations that its Nook e-reader infringes on Microsoft patents. It even hired a legendary antitrust lawyer to lead that part of the case. Now a judge appears to have given Microsoft a key victory.

]]> Last week Symantec told some 50,000 pcAnywhere users to stop using the software until it could fix a critical security flaw. Those patches are now available, and the company is offering free upgrades to anyone using older, unsupported versions.

]]> The beta release of Windows 8 is just a few weeks away. It should be nearly feature-complete, and expectations will be high. So what’s keeping managers in Redmond awake at night? Here are my top five questions.

]]> In recent years, Windows and Office have moved on parallel development tracks. Today’s announcement of an Office beta “later this summer” offers some useful hints about the Windows 8 schedule. Will Microsoft spring a big upside surprise?

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