Balancing Act: How New Privacy Legislation Is Reshaping Polygraph Data Storage and Reporting Requirements

As technology continues to progress at an alarming rate, privacy concerns are paramount for citizens.

Gone are the days when you can interact with the greater world without leaving behind some sort of digital trace. Companies are gathering data about people everywhere you look, from buying habits to personal histories. For a majority of folks, this means companies (and the government) have mountains of data on each person, and this is just for everyday life.

What happens when you sit down, get hooked up to monitoring equipment, and tell the truth about your personal life? That is data that needs to be kept incredibly secure. Welcome to the complicated world of polygraph data privacy.

With the advancement of technology over the years, we’ve seen polygraph tests adapt to the current times. What started with humble paper and ink beginnings has turned into a mostly digital process. Now, when you take a polygraph test, there is a digital report that is generated and interpreted by an examiner. But who makes sure this data is kept private and secure, out of the clutches of digital ne’er-do-wells?

With privacy legislation adapting over time, we’ve seen new laws that have changed how polygraph data is stored and disseminated. Below, you’ll find an overview of how this process has evolved over time and where it might go in the future.

The Early Days of Paper and Ink

As mentioned above, polygraph tests used to be a predominantly paper-and-ink affair. An examinee was attached to monitoring equipment by the examiner, and the process began with a series of questions. The results were delivered as lines on paper, up to the examiner to interpret based on their own expertise. As you can probably guess, this is where the evolution of polygraph testing laws began, governing the admissibility of this information in court cases.

At this point, polygraph data storage was fairly straightforward. Reports were kept on paper and stored in secure file cabinets.

Obviously, privacy was still a major concern, so there were standards in place to ensure the reports weren’t viewed by anyone other than previously agreed parties. And honestly, as long as the files were kept in a secure location, there was really no danger of the reports falling into the wrong hands. Your personal information was safe, for the most part.

As for which legislation governed the release of the reports, it all fell under the comprehensive Privacy Act of 1974. To this day, this act is the primary guidance for how personal information is guarded in a polygraph report.

Things became vastly more complicated with the introduction of digital machines and reports.

The Digital Age

A few decades ago, polygraph technology evolved into a mostly digital process. Sure, an examinee was still attached to physical monitoring equipment, but the results were presented digitally on a computer.

This was adopted as a way to hopefully receive more accurate results and present them in a cleaner, more refined way. As you might expect, this began to complicate the process a bit more, as reports started to become largely digital.

With the advent of the Internet and the beginning of digital data storage, even more privacy laws were passed to protect the personal information of citizens. This meant companies had to take it upon themselves to regulate how they stored digital information about people.

How did this affect polygraph examiners? Well, with reports becoming digital and the need for security evolving, as well, polygraph reports had to be saved in new locations.

According to the American Polygraph Association (APA), it is the recommended standard that digital reports be securely saved on a cloud server with multi-factor authentication (MFA). These files should be kept for no less than three years (or following state-specific laws).

Overall, it is of the utmost importance that examiners maintain strict access control to protect examinee privacy. This means protecting reports from unwanted eyes by the aforementioned MFA or the use of encrypted hard drives.

The Future

This brings us to the future of polygraph data storage and privacy. Privacy legislation over the past year or so has focused primarily on companies who specialize in data collection. This is clearly a privacy concern, as people need to be protected from companies trying to freely sell their personal data.

There have also been laws aimed at protecting the personal information of minors, which, again, is hugely important. So, where does this leave polygraph examiners attempting to provide privacy for their clients?

There will be more emphasis on privacy than ever before. With polygraph tests, examinees are speaking about some of their most personal information. It’s of the utmost concern that this data doesn’t fall into the wrong hands.

We’ll likely see an increase in examiners using the most up-to-date cloud servers providing the best security possible. It’ll also be important for examiners to regularly inspect data storage systems. This is to personally guarantee there are no signs of unauthorized access.

In terms of reporting, examiners should only share polygraph data with authorized people and only utilize secure transfer methods, such as encrypted email or dedicated file transfer platforms. When sharing reports, it’ll also be important to force authorized viewers to use multi-factor authentication on their end, as well.

Ultimately, as we’ve seen in the past, polygraph data storage and reporting will always be directly impacted by privacy legislation. You could argue that polygraph data is some of the most personal information a person can share. So, we’ll have to see where the future of privacy heads.