Ted SpenceLet’s talk about a problem - software cannot be trusted anymore. In the past, if I allowed an app to send me notifications, I’d get alerted for things I wanted to hear about. Now every app uses spurious notifications as a way to artificially boost their daily active user count. I am one by one having to shut off notifications on apps that used to be reliable products. I’ve disabled notifications on linkedin because it keeps sending me ads and random unnecessary alerts.
We fundamentally need a new type of option: the ability to grant software privileges that are completely phony. I need to be able to *pretend* to grant an app the ability to send me notifications, but then to have all those notifications sent into the void. Untrustworthy software should not be able to know what privileges I have granted it.
Hak Foo 
@Tedspence It should go further, basically anything a decent test-mocking framework can do, this permission system should do. Not just null data, but your choice of random- or user-specified garbage. Not just routing notifications or outbound messages to the void, funneling them to a logfile.
It pays for itself when you can see what the "invite your friends" message actually says before committing, or teleport to San Jose when an app only allows online-cancellations for California residents.