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.
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:
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):
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.
Constricting one's anus can work as a polygraph countermeasure provided that it is done timely with the asking of the "control" questions. This countermeasure so concerns polygraph operators that all federal polygraphers are required to use a seat pad that purports to detect such activity.
Alternative countermeasures include mental activity (such as thinking exciting thoughts, or doing math in one's head) and tongue-biting.
For more on polygraph countermeasures, see Chapter 4 of The Lie Behind the Lie Detector:
I'd love to be the government contractor providing all the expensive anal clenching divination seat pads.
Sounds like that would be a great input device for Affective Computing, Sentiment Analysis, and Targeted Ad Analytics. Maybe Facebook will make one to go with the Oculus some day.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/05/22/jeremy-kyle-gues...