8 months in prison for teaching people how to beat lie detector test

[Deleted]

Yea i thought lie detectors were not used because they dont work/prove anything.
They just use them on chatshows and tv because it looks legit.

[Anuibus]

Which is probably why he only got 8 months instead of life for 'threatening national security'.

Prosecution wanted 21 months. Also

District Judge Liam O'Grady acknowledged that "the gray areas regarding the First Amendment right to teach these countermeasures are real."

[Deleted]

http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/i...fraud-20181046

So apparently it's against the law to teach people to beat a lie detector test when you know that they intend to beat a federally administered test?

I feel like they're just making this shit up because they didn't like what he was doing, even though lie detector tests are pretty much bullshit.

If I drive the car that helps bank robbers escape capture, I am guilty.

If I help a criminal hide or remove evidence of their crime, I am guilty.

If I knowingly help another person commit a crime, I am guilty.

I don't see the problem here. He was helping people commit a crime and knowingly so.

[Deleted]

i thought lie detectors were always faulty, this article is just stupid as no crime was done atleast to my knowledge

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If I drive the car that helps bank robbers escape capture, I am guilty.

If I help a criminal hide or remove evidence of their crime, I am guilty.

If I knowingly help another person commit a crime, I am guilty.

I don't see the problem here. He was helping people commit a crime and knowingly so.

in this case he is the driving instructor not the driver.

[Deleted]

They still use them over there? A lie detector (the name alone is a lie already) has no place in a courtroom. In germany, the only place that might use lie detectors are talkshows, as a cheap gimmick.

Q: Did you fuck your girlfriend's BFF?
A: No
[Big red sign that reads "LIE"]
Audience: BOOOOOO!

Don't you feel entertained? Brb, I need a coffee...

[Catta]

Huh. That seems silly.

On a somewhat related note, my understanding is that there are 2 ways to throw off (not so much "beat") a lie detector. While I'm sure there are some finer points I'm not aware of, the basic ideas seem to be
a) remain completely calm. A lie detector works by measuring the momentary stress the body undergoes when you lie. This includes, I think, increased heart rate and blood flow. If you can stay perfectly relaxed while lying, you're not going to give off any readings. But this can be hard to do when you know what you say will have serious consequences, so the easier option is
b) completely lose your shit. Most lie detector tests will start with some "calibration" questions, such as your name, the date, etc. Things that the interrogators already know the answer to. Just psych yourself out to the point where you could set off the lie detector by saying the sky is blue. Since the detector works by sensing sudden increases in nervousness, you can make it useless by being a nervous wreck the entire time.

Ive always wanted to try a lie detector. I can get sweaty palms on command by just remembering a specific ride in an amusement park which involves going too many meters up in the air and then falling down. I fucking hate heights.

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They still use them over there? A lie detector (the name alone is a lie already) has no place in a courtroom. In germany, the only place that might use lie detectors are talkshows, as a cheap gimmick.

Q: Did you fuck your girlfriend's BFF?
A: No
[Big red sign that reads "LIE"]
Audience: BOOOOOO!

Don't you feel entertained? Brb, I need a coffee...

Thats why they usually call them polygraphs.

[imabanana]

Lie detectors are a joke for anyone with a bit of self control. A little training and it will tell exactly what you decide. (and for people who have none, the false-positives rate is incredibly high)

I never understood why they're still in use in the US. Almost no other country still use these faulty things, I think only India and US consider they have any value in court.

[Deleted]

Lie detector shouldn't even exist anymore. It's a physiological tool, it doesn't tell if you lie or not.

[Themius]

Well this is highly stupid....

[GKLeatherCraft]

I'm not even sure how that would constitute fraud. Under that argument I could sue every single one of my teachers because I'm not a published political scientist.

Once a person teaches you something, it's up to you to apply it.

Only if you paid them to teach you to become a published political scientist.

[Arganis]

"Mr. Dixon chose to enrich himself by teaching others how to convincingly lie, cheat and steal," Phillips said.

In that case, they should arrest all the deans and professors in business and law schools in this country.

This made me laugh. +1 Internet to you.

[Twotonsteak]

The "lie detector" test is administered by policy to most (if not all) federal employees. In the case of organizations such as the NSA it's given as often as every few months. It is, for all intent, the same as the drug test you might be forced to take for any other job.

Dixon, knowing full well who he was teaching and what he was teaching them, assisted those people in "interfering" with a "governmental proceeding." (Apparently this violates a law.) If that violates an existing law then he screwed up. He deserves jail time.

[Deleted]

Polygraphs are pseudo-scientific bullshit and the fact that the government relies on them so much that people teaching how to get around them are prosecuted is crazy. It's like prosecuting someone who is offering to bonk you on the head to help you pass a phrenology exam!

[A Day to Remember]

I'm not sure I should even bring this up, but I've also been told that you can throw off a polygraph if you masturbate right before the test >.>

Which makes sense, seeing how that would effect your heart rate and general blood flow throughout your body.

hmm, the more you know i guess! This may cum in handy some day...

[Deleted]

hmm, the more you know i guess! This may cum in handy some day...

Be ready that it might blow up...

[Gheld]

"Lie detectors" aren't even a thing.

Polygraphs measure the physiological signs of stress.

In order for it to act as a "Lie detector" the subject first has to believe that it works. The "baseline" questions will make the subject comfortable with telling the truth. But because they believe it works, they will then become stressed out if they feel compelled to lie (because they believe they are hooked up to a machine that can tell the difference).

But if you aren't susceptible to such a suggestion, and you don't believe it works, then whether or not you feel stressed by a particular question has nothing to do with whether or not you are telling teh truth.

So the fact that this is a news story, I'm sorry, this is as "loony-bin" as any news headline that has the name "Hugo Chavez" in it. Yes. I just compared the US to Venezuela.

[Very Tired]

Doesn't this send the message they should arrest everyone that shows us how to beat a lie detector test? Like the guy in the Penn and Teller video telling the entire nation on T.V.

[Gheld]

Doesn't this send the message they should arrest everyone that shows us how to beat a lie detector test? Like the guy in the Penn and Teller video telling the entire nation on T.V.

If you can beat a lie detector test then it's not a lie detector test and therefore you can't teach somebody how to beat it. It's a self-defeating argument.

[Deleted]

Man, this list of Tyrannical things the Government does is getting larger and larger.

[Deleted]

Don't you want Federal Agents, of any sort, to be able to lie on those things? I mean, don't our intelligence agencies teach them just that, ya know, in case they're captured and really pathetically interrogated?

"Yah, we have captured ze spy, shall I lightly tickle him yet fuhrer?"