As the 2020 Presidential election edges closer, Laura Edelson, a Ph.D. candidate in Computer Science and Engineering at NYU Tandon finds herself much in demand. Because of her work as lead researcher with the Online Political Ads Transparency Project, Edelson has been called on several times over the summer to serve as a panelist and/or commentator for media outlets. On August 20, she was one of five panelists discussing “So Many Digital Ads, So Little Regulation: Why We Need Digital Ad Transparency Now” in an online event sponsored by the Campaign Legal Center. The panel discussion was recorded and is now available for viewing on YouTube. A day later she was quoted in an article in Wired, offering comments about a “loophole” in Google’s policies governing political advertising. She points to a lack of rigor in what the keyword search “takes into account” when making the determination of whether an ad is political or not. “Any determination, if it’s not factoring in the context, is missing a pretty big piece of the puzzle,” she adds. Read the full article here.