How Clearspeed differs from the polygraph
Danielle Ng-See-Quan
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There are often questions about how Clearspeed is different from other voice technologies, including voice stress, voice printing, NLP, “lie detectors,” and technologies that measure physiological responses, like the polygraph.
Each of these solutions plays its own role in the risk assessment ecosystem. While polygraph and credibility assessment tools are often compared to Clearspeed, they operate on fundamentally different principles, deliver different outputs, and serve different operational needs.
Traditional polygraph examinations measure physiological responses—such as heart rate, breathing patterns, and skin conductivity—while some other credibility assessment tools use behavioral or voice stress analysis. All of these share a core premise: deception produces measurable stress responses in the body, and if you capture and interpret those signals, you can determine whether someone is lying. The output is typically binary: “deceptive” or “non-deceptive” (with the occasional “inconclusive”).
Clearspeed is a voice-based risk assessment technology. Its ability to detect, quantify, and evaluate characteristics in the voice that are directly correlated with risk is unique. In both commercial and government use cases, Clearspeed can be leveraged in large environments to complement existing solutions as validation, or used as a first touchpoint for risk assessment to better deploy resources on cases that require follow-up or a closer look.
Historically, there’s always been a tradeoff between speed and security when assuming and assessing risk - either over-indexing on security which results in lengthy timelines, or compromising security to move faster. Clearspeed breaks this paradigm by delivering a novel indicator of risk, extracted from voice, that is incredibly accurate and delivered in real-time.
Clearspeed’s unique approach to risk assessment shifts the focus from treating all cases as high risk to rapidly clearing low-risk cases first. This is made possible through Clearspeed’s first-of-its-kind technology that enables triage rapidly, in the moment, and at scale. This "clear fast” model allows businesses and governments to remove bottle necks and, importantly, to build trust with individuals faster.
This means that organizations can move forward - without compromising speed or security - with a unique data point to inform decision-making about risk.
For organizations that already use technologies like the polygraph, we can help determine who, and who not to, polygraph based on risk indicators - and can help narrow a large volume of individuals to a smaller subset.
This piece further addresses how Clearspeed differs from the polygraph.
There are different aspects to consider when it comes to the method of delivery of a polygraph test versus a Clearspeed questionnaire.
Polygraphs are administered by an independent examiner, and always done in-person. Due to an examiner’s potential use of different sequences across questions and their subjective interpretation of the results, the possibility of bias and inaccuracy introduces some limitations.
Clearspeed’s voice-based risk assessment is delivered via an automated questionnaire (in any language), with outreach through any voice-enabled device (phone, mobile, tablet, web, chat). We require no information on the participant beyond a file number or similar, to which we can tie results. The evaluation is entirely objective and unbiased.
A polygraph test can be anywhere from two to four hours in duration, not including travel time and associated costs. With privately administered polygraphs, examinees may receive verbal results on the same day, while a written report documenting the final results can take up to a few weeks. For government and military agencies - the largest user group of polygraphs - due to a detailed quality control process, results can take from several days to several months to be provided depending on agency workload.
Clearspeed’s voice-based questionnaire comprises three-to-five simple yes/no questions tailored to each client’s need, which can be embedded directly into an existing workflow. This creates minimal disruption to the end-user and the process itself from a time perspective. Clearspeed’s results are provided in near real-time to the client for next steps.
Due to the manual and lengthy nature of the polygraph’s one-on-one sessions, they are not intended for scale and volume. Conversely, Clearspeed is used to achieve rapid and high throughput for large-scale screenings - and after a Clearspeed flag, organizations can leverage traditional methods like the polygraph for follow-up if required.
While an examinee is asked and answers a series of questions, the polygraph measures and records five or more channels of physiological indicators. These can include blood pressure, pulse, respiration, and skin conductivity. The polygraph doesn’t account for individual differences in physiological responses, which may create difficulty in comparing results across tests.
Clearspeed’s voice-based risk assessment identifies risk signals in voice - not stress, speech or emotion-based outcomes. Our proprietary innovation is the ability to map universal vocal characteristics – regardless of language, gender, race, geography, age, etc. – and extract the characteristics associated with risk. The response is analyzed for the presence or absence of characteristics associated with risk and scored on a low to high spectrum to provide a risk assessment result.
A significant amount of personal information is collected during a polygraph test, which is why it can be seen as invasive. The test is confidential, with results disclosure limited to those listed in an agreement signed by both the examiner and examinee prior to the examination, unless otherwise specified. Generally, records are kept for three years from the date of the examination. In the US, different organizations and agencies have guidelines for information retention, for example, as related to screening employees for their job function. The use of the polygraph in employment is regulated (e.g. Employee Polygraph Protection Act, or EPPA, in the US). Agencies also conduct detailed Privacy Impact Assessments (PIAs) to evaluate how personally identifiable information (PII) is handled securely, and mitigate privacy risks.
With privacy by design, Clearspeed does not collect any personal profiling data, personally identifiable information (PII), or personal health information (PHI). Instead, it evaluates individual voice responses to tailored questions at a moment in time. This creates a situation-specific primary data point that does not rely upon historical or personal profiles as context. Factors like race, gender, age, accent, or socio-economic status are not known or measured. Since Clearspeed does not analyze word meaning or content, it is language- and culture-agnostic. From a compliance perspective, Clearspeed avoids the legal and privacy pitfalls of polygraph and similar tools. It is non-invasive, non-biometric, and fully compliant with global privacy frameworks, including EPPA and GDPR. Analysis is machine-driven, ensuring consistent scoring and reducing the risk of human bias.
Polygraph results are interpreted in three distinct categories: deception indicated, deception not indicated, and inconclusive. A “deception indicated” result - where the probability of deception is in the highest range - also does not necessarily indicate definitive lying. Depending on the result, an examinee may undergo further polygraph testing for clarity, or may move to the next step.
First, Clearspeed does not measure truthfulness, detect deception, or understand intent. Clearspeed’s technology objectively assesses indicators of risk, and to what degree, to guide follow-up efforts. Second, Clearspeed is not a determinant. It does not provide a binary decision about truth or dishonesty. Clearspeed only analyzes the yes/no response to determine if the characteristics of risk are present in the voice and if so, to what extent. Our technology precisely identifies risk characteristics in the voice, and provides a data point to inform decision-making so organizations can quickly clear low-risk individuals while focusing more attention and resources on higher-risk individuals.
In practical terms, this means Clearspeed delivers “low risk” or “elevated risk” indicators, not pass/fail judgments. It is designed for rapid deployment in both virtual and field environments, able to assess thousands of individuals in minutes without requiring invasive sensors or personal background data.
With polygraph examinations designed to assess for intentional deception, common use cases include criminal investigations, where law enforcement agencies may use polygraphs to corroborate evidence or assess a suspect’s credibility; pre-employment or periodic screening for sensitive positions in government, law enforcement, intelligence, or security sectors; internal investigations within organizations to address issues like theft, fraud, or misconduct; and monitoring compliance for individuals on probation or parole. Deploying polygraph testing for these applications requires a highly controlled in-person environment, extensive set up, and trained in-language examiners. As a result, they’re best-suited for very focused use cases with smaller groups of people or infrequent individual testing.
Clearspeed was developed to disrupt the traditional vetting industry with a focus on clearing people at scale - to ‘clear the hay’ rather than ‘find the needle.’ With an automated approach and availability in any language, Clearspeed can be deployed where risk triage is critical across large populations, where continuous vetting supports a more secure approach, and when background data or localized inputs may be limited. Initially developed for the U.S. Department of Defense to screen allied forces in high-stakes environments, Clearspeed also helps commercial enterprises screen for risk at scale. Common use cases include financial services applications and claims, ongoing employee screening, foreign personnel vetting, border security, and vendor risk management. With broad applications, Clearspeed voice-based risk assessment technology delivers a highly precise individual risk assessment wherever achieving trust at scale is critical.
While polygraph has its place, especially in law enforcement and intelligence vetting to direct determinations of credibility, it comes with operational drawbacks as it is not a risk assessment tool. It requires trained examiners, controlled environments, and extended one-on-one sessions. Its scientific validity is frequently challenged, its admissibility in court is limited, and its use in employment contexts is heavily regulated in countries like the U.S. under the Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA). It acts as an investigative truth-testing tool suited for targeted, one-to-one contexts.
Clearspeed is a rapid, risk-based triage technology designed to clear the low-risk majority quickly, allowing resources to focus on high-risk cases.
American Polygraph Association
Federal Examiner Handbook
U.S. Department of Justice
European Union
Department of Homeland Security
National Security and Intelligence Review Agency
U.S. Intelligence Community Careers
