I hate forced updates but, up until now, have only had to deal with that on my Playstations. This happened to me just the other day. I had long resisted giving out my personal information in order to use the Google Play app, for as long as I've had the Android phone, but I wanted a particular app, and could find no other way to get it on my phone. The minute I plugged my email address into Google Play, I got hit with a number of updates, and could do nothing about it. To top it off, I couldn't get the stupid app to work. By now, Google has undoubtedly scooped up all my contacts, and god knows what else. I swear, it's becoming very difficult to keep Google's tentacles out of all your shit. Do we really have to jailbreak Android now, too?

Living in the US I have slow internet anyway, but I took no speed hit by using a VPN, (vpn.ac). I still get my 2.6 MB/s download speed.

I recently tried to register with a forum which discusses recreational drugs, and was prevented, (even taunted!), by the site because of my use of a VPN. I wrote the administrators, asking why they would force their users to expose themselves, particularly those users living in censored or totalitarian-governed countries who can only obtain good information via VPN. They came back with "because:spammers". Seems like a lazy approach to me.