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giles_corey

Federal agents who run the social media subforum think you shouldn't research the polygraph.
Re:Polygraphs Aren't Accurate. Are There Better Options? on Thursday March 26, 2026 @01:16AM (#47526856)
A better option to the polygraph is simply nothing. It is better to do nothing than to do something that is known not to work.
Indeed, the FBI participated in the criminal investigation of the late Doug Williams, who offered training on how to pass or beat a polygraph "test." Because there was no actual crime for which to prosecute him, federal agents set out to stage one in a "sting" operation they dubbed "Operation Lie Busters":

https://antipolygraph.org/blog/2016/04/26/operation-lie-bust...

You are correct. The Employee Polygraph Protection Act of 1988, which otherwise prohibits the use of putative lie detectors by employees, provides exemptions for such cases.
That CBS 60 Minutes exposé aired 40 years ago, yet it remains relevant today. It may be viewed in its entirety here:

https://antipolygraph.org/blog/2007/01/30/cbs-60-minutes-exp...

On the Jeremy Kyle show, the lie detector drove one guest to suicide (which led to the show's cancellation):

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/05/22/jeremy-kyle-gues...

Beating the polygraph means passing it when you're lying about the relevant issues. Although polygraphy has no scientific basis, the methodology employed makes effective countermeasures possible.
Yes, unfortunately. The governments of the following countries, among others, rely on polygraphy to varying extents: Canada, UK, Israel, Russia, Ukraine, and China.
Re:How to Mitigate a Negative SEO Campaign? on Saturday October 26, 2019 @03:14PM (#21365586)
The spam sites that replicate the original page's content make the original page look like low value content, too.
Re:Trump's Obsession with [the Pseudoscience of] Polygraphs on Tuesday October 08, 2019 @10:38AM (#21192789)
President Richard Nixon also considered forcing White House staff to submit to polygraph "testing" to plug leaks, though it seems he thought better of that idea in the end: https://antipolygraph.org/documents/nixon-polygraph-quotatio...
Re:Why Lie Detector Tests Can’t Be Trusted on Tuesday July 30, 2019 @12:32AM (#20562156)
For federal agencies, the seat pad is now standard. There are no public studies of its effectiveness. Regarding how the U.S. government attempts to detect polygraph countermeasures, see:

https://antipolygraph.org/blog/2018/06/09/ncca-polygraph-cou...

Re:Why Lie Detector Tests Can’t Be Trusted on Tuesday July 30, 2019 @12:28AM (#20562141)
The 1998 Employee Polygraph Protection Act largely prohibited the use of lie detectors for employee screening by private companies.
Re:Why Lie Detector Tests Can’t Be Trusted on Tuesday July 30, 2019 @12:26AM (#20562134)
To the best of my knowledge, Ted Bundy was never polygraphed. You are correct about the Green River Killer (Gary Leon Ridgway) and the innocent man (Melvin Foster):

https://antipolygraph.org/cgi-bin/forums/YaBB.pl?num=1067927...

Re:Why Lie Detector Tests Can’t Be Trusted on Tuesday July 30, 2019 @12:04AM (#20562053)
NSA polygraph operators are not law enforcement officers. Lying to them is nonetheless a violation of 18 USC 1001. However, I am not aware of any case where anyone has been criminally prosecuted for lying during an NSA polygraph interrogation.

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