When did everything become such a massive data grab?

It's nearly impossible for me to use any modern game or software without giving away more and more data - even when I've already paid for the damn thing.

There are attempts to grab data at every stage, every turn, often by multiple parties.

I remember when I could double click a game's icon and start playing within two minutes.

But recently, I bought GTA 5 on PC and my user flow looks like this:

- Sign into Steam - Sign up for GTA 5 "Social Club" (even though I don't want to be "social" or play online) - "Verify" I'm not a Robot before signing in. If that fails, I have to click on little images for Google.

My single "one click" experience has turned into a "three click" experience with multiple sign-ins and attempts to grab even more data.

Why can't modern software simply respect me and understand that I just want to do stuff, not deal with a gazillion sign-ins. I don't want to give you any more information about me. I don't want to be a little monkey clicking away at squares in your ML algorithms. I don't want your newsletter.

I just want to use my damn computer and I want all your sign-up forms, pop-ups, and "social clubs" to get the hell out of my way.

- A frustrated user