TC Roundup: Hillary Clinton hires Google executive as tech chief

Hillary Clinton hires Google executive as tech chief : Likely 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has hired a Google executive to serve as her chief technology officer, a person familiar with the campaign's planning said on Wednesday.

Clinton hired Stephanie Hannon, Google's director of product management for civic innovation and social impact, to run her technology operations, according to the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity. (Recode)

Admitting tracking 'Bug', Facebook defends European privacy practices : Facebook Inc.FB pushed back on Thursday against some accusations from Belgian scholars that the social network trampled over its users' privacy rights – but admitted that the academics found a "bug" that mistakenly tracked people even while they weren't on Facebook's website.

The company said it has started to fix the problem, which used "cookies" – or code stored in people's web browsers – to track people who hadn't signed up for Facebook when they visited websites that integrated certain Facebook technology. (The Wall Street Journal)

During pan-Asia blitz, Xiaomi sells more than 2 million smartphones in 12 hours : Yesterday, to commemorate its five year in business, Chinese smartphone vendor Xiaomi held a 12-hour "fan festival" sales blitz across all of its markets. In that period, the company sold 2.12 million smartphones, raking in revenues of RMB 2.08 billion (about US$335 million).

The company also sold 770,000 smart appliances (it sells lightbulbs, air filters, and other smart home products), 208,000 Mi Band wristbands, and 247,000 units of its newly-introduced power strips. (Tech in Asia)

Read the email Bill Gates sent to employees for Microsoft's 40th anniversary : Microsoft is celebrating its 40th anniversary on April 4, 2015. That happens to fall on a Saturday, though, meaning today is the last day the company can rally the troops. And who better to do that than cofounder Bill Gates?

Gates sent an email titled "Microsoft's 40th anniversary" to all of the company's 100,000+ employees today. With such a large number, someone was bound to post it, andDarrell Prichard did just that. (Venture Beat)

Zynga founder reclaims CEO role amid turnaround : Zynga's founder is back to run the farm. Marrk Pincus, who guided the online gaming company from its inception in 2007 through its high-profile IPO four years later and subsequent stock market crash, has been limited to the role of cheerleader since July 2013, when he stepped down as chief executive officer. (CNBC)