Fake data in a product demo: where the line actually is
Every launch screenshot contains invented numbers. That is normal. What turns it into a problem is not the invention; it is what the image is then used to obtain.
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Inventing the contents of a screenshot is standard and expected; the line is crossed when the image is presented as a record of something real (a real balance, real traction, a real account) in order to obtain money, an investment or someone's trust.
Everyone does it, and that is fine
Launch screenshots contain invented names, invented amounts and invented dates. They have to: the alternative is either an empty state, which sells nothing, or a real user's data, which you are not allowed to publish. A fixture is not a lie, it is a set.
The same is true of a demo account in a pitch, a filled dashboard in documentation, and a wallet screen in a tutorial. Nobody is confused by an interface populated with plausible content, because everybody understands that a product shot is a product shot.
The line is not the invention. It is the claim.
An invented number becomes a problem the moment the image is offered as evidence. The useful test is a single question: what is this image being used to obtain?
| Use | Reading |
|---|---|
| Store listing, landing page, tutorial | Illustration. Expected. |
| Deck slide showing what the product looks like | Illustration, as long as the slide does not label it as traction. |
| Deck slide showing invented revenue as real | A claim about facts. Not a screenshot problem, a fraud problem. |
| An image of a balance sent to convince someone you hold it | The same, with a shorter path to harm. |
Notice that the file is identical in all four rows. Nothing about the pixels decides which one you are in. That is why “is it obvious it is a mockup?” is the wrong question and “what is it being used for?” is the right one.
Labelling, and when it stops being enough
A visible label (a corner marker, a caption saying the data is illustrative) is worth having, and it settles most cases. It is also the first thing that gets cropped.
Which is why a label is a courtesy to honest viewers rather than a defence against dishonest use. It helps the person reading your deck; it does nothing about the person who screenshots one slide and forwards it. The protection that actually works is contextual: put the numbers where the context already says what they are, and do not produce images whose only possible use is the dishonest one.
App review has its own version of this
Apple's review guidelines require that screenshots show the app in use, and that the listing accurately represent what the app does. In practice that rules out two things people do routinely: showing a screen the build cannot produce, and showing a competitor's interface with your logo on it. Both are variations of the same failure: the image describes an app other than the one being submitted.
Guideline numbering shifts between revisions, so quoting a number here would date badly. The principle does not move: the listing has to be about the thing you are shipping.
A practical position
- Invent freely for illustration. Keep one fixture and reuse it, so the set is coherent.
- Never let an invented figure sit under a heading that says it is real.
- Label by default, and understand that the label is not the safeguard.
- Do not produce an image whose only use is to convince someone that money exists when it does not.
That last line is the whole thing. Everything above it is craft; that one is the difference between a mockup and a forgery, and it does not depend on how good the mockup is.
Questions
How do you demo an app without real data?
Seed a demo account with invented records that look like real use: plausible names, amounts and dates, enough of them to fill every screen you will show. For an app that shows money, type the balances yourself rather than borrowing a real account, and say on screen that the data is sample data.
Is it acceptable to use fake data in a product demo?
Inventing the contents of a screenshot is standard and expected. Every app screenshot on the App Store does it.
Where is the line?
It is crossed when the image is presented as a record of something real (a real balance, real traction, a real account) in order to obtain money, an investment or someone’s trust.
Written by My Larp Wallet, a crypto wallet app simulator: a mockup that opens on your phone, never a real wallet. For your own app’s screenshots, shoot your build; where a wallet mockup fits, and where it does not.
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