I don't know exactly how Continental or any other company's system works, but United L-UAL airplanes show the OUT time as the first parking brake release after the boarding doors are closed, and the IN time as the last time the parking brake was set prior to a boarding door being open. No intentional deception, that's the way the systems are set up. It doesn't always fully reflect reality, and it is possible to manually call in any or all of OUT, OFF, ON, and IN times that are for one reason or another incorrect.

FAB