Comment by chrisco255
12 days ago
Polygraphs have to be one of the most awkward / bizarre requirements for accessing a program. They are not scientifically reliable.
12 days ago
Polygraphs have to be one of the most awkward / bizarre requirements for accessing a program. They are not scientifically reliable.
There is a reason why nobody uses them but the U.S.
The US uses them more pervasively it seems, but there's still remnants of it elsewhere.
The UK uses them for post-conviction monitoring in certain offenses: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/police-crime-sent... ...and there's more than one British polygraph group: BPA and BPS (https://www.britishpolygraphassociation.org/, https://polygraph.org.uk/)
Australia did indeed reject the polygraph for security clearance: https://antipolygraph.org/blog/2006/10/19/australian-securit...
Canada however does seem to use it as part of their intelligence screening: https://www.canada.ca/en/security-intelligence-service/corpo...
> Do I have to go through the polygraph test to join CSIS?
> Yes. All CSIS employees must obtain a Top Secret security clearance and the polygraph is a mandatory part of the process.
Seems to be the same for CSE and to get "Enhanced Top Secret" clearance.
Back to the US, the Department of Labor says that private employers can't force people to undergo a polygraph test: https://www.dol.gov/agencies/whd/polygraph But of course this does not apply to public sector jobs, where it's used more pervasively.
They're somewhat effective at stopping people applying if those people know they will have to lie