Seriously, with stuff like this, the whole "Internet of Things," and whatnot, I feel like it's every day that I see some new product or service blaring about how awesome and convenient it is. Except we're at the point, in our relatively advanced and spoiled society, where there is very little that is so damned inconvenient that it requires a tech-based solution. "Convenience saturation" or something like that.

Oh, and if Slashdot is going to be advertising shit, at least advertise breakthrough products. This is a "meh" at best on the "gobsmacking tech inventions" scale.

Hahaha, you can just hear the disdain and scorn in his voice. He might as well have just said "and all of that other privacy bullshit"

Man, I wish you had filmed it. Right onto Youtube and viral on the Internet. That's the only thing that kind of cop is afraid of.

Should have known sarcasm wouldn't fly on a message board for nerds...

The previous 200 comments have not satisfactorily answered the question: will it be free forever or subscription based?

Clearly a lot of teenage boys' passwords were leaked as well.

I don't necessarily disagree with you, but I try to balance the practicality of a situation with what is right from a legal perspective. I want to end the encounter as quickly as possible, and doing what you are suggesting is only likely to prolong it.

Being "detained" absolutely does have a specific meaning when it comes to a police encounter. An officer needs to have reasonable suspicion that you have committed a crime, are committing a crime, or are about to commit a crime in order to detain you. If you ask, the officer (eventually) either has to say "yes," in which case s/he must demonstrate that reasonable suspicion, or say "no," which means you are free to go.

No, you didn't say you'd just walk away -- fair enough, my bad. But I don't see what point there is in trying to procure more "psychological power". Asking those two questions is really all the "power" you need, legally speaking. I mean, do you really think stating instead of asking is going to give you the upper hand? If you say "Thank you officer, but I'm going to go now," you set yourself up to be stopped again, likely by a now even more irate cop.

I was in the very situation about a year back. Two cops stopped me when I was walking home from work in the evening. I was doing nothing suspicious -- I live in a very small town and I had just moved there, so I figure they had probably seen a new face around town and wanted to know who I was. They told me they had gotten a phone call about a "suspicious person" who apparently had my first name and the last name "Smith" walking around town. I'm guessing they asked the clerk at the convenience store next to my office and got my first name, and then just cooked up a last name to fabricate the story -- I mean, Smith? Come on.

Still, though, I had no way of knowing if there was more to it than that. By asking if I was being detained, it forced them to essentially admit that there was no probable cause or reasonable suspicion. If they hadn't fabricated the whole thing and actually *had* received a tip, they might have had a reason to detain me; but then they would have had to defend it in court, which obviously they chose not to, which makes me think they had nothing to begin with. I don't know for sure, but that's the best I can make of it. Either way, it's much safer to just ask if you are being detained and get an answer from the horse's mouth.

But if you want to try your way, please do, and please upload the results.

This is exactly what I'm talking about:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Would mod this up if I had mod points. Great post.

That question -- am I being detained, or am I free to go? -- uses police terminology to force them into either admitting they are detaining you in the legal sense -- for which they need probable cause, suspicion you are committing a crime, etc. -- or admitting that they are not detaining you, in which case you are not legally obligated to stick around. Doing so completely clarifies the legal situation. Just walking away before doing so is NOT a good idea.

Touche. At the same time, that's all the more reason for people of color to videotape *every* police encounter and know exactly what to say when they are stopped by a cop.

Basically, don't talk to the police without a lawyer present. Period. I mean, I'm not going to stonewall a cop that pulls me over for a broken taillight, but if the line of questioning goes any further than what's immediately relevant to said taillight, that's when I shut up. And you can guarantee that I will be videotaping the entire encounter! Cops are under no obligation to tell you the truth about anything; it's up to you to know what your rights are in a given situation and assert them.

Now why would I want my wife to know that when I say "I'll do it in five minutes" I really mean "not important, get to it when I can, probably quicker to do it yourself"?

Japanese? Cue a spin-off app called "Real Time Engrish".