[jljljl]

How do you provide random dummy data for a Contact List permission without a) running the risk of crashing the app, or b) making it obvious to the app that it's receiving dummy data?

Is android supposed to return a well structured list of fake names and emails? Would instagram show me a list of made up names and user id's if I faked my contacts?

[userbinator]

If Android has a way of faking location data, I don't see why a contact list would be any different:

https://developer.android.com/training/location/location-tes...

[chinpokomon]

Considerably different. Mock location data simply provides the location you want over ADB. It is a supplied value.

[userbinator]

It doesn't need ADB. There's an app for that: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lexa.fakeg...

So it is similar in that you could conceivably have an app that manages fake contact lists' data.

[chinpokomon]

True, but that is just performing the same data mocking that the ADB method uses. It really doesn't change my statement.

[Karunamon]

http://www.fakenamegenerator.com/

This exists. Something similar is hardly out of Google's reach.

[jljljl]

Think about the experience for a second:

1. An app asks for permission to access my contacts 2. I decline to give permission 3. The app churns for a few seconds, then suddenly returns a list of names that i have never seen before, including fake numbers and addresses (a list of fake names would be too easy to detect as a fake response).

We're probably better off just returning nothing