Is there a way to turn off app updates when global and app-specific autoupdate setting is already set to Never/Off?
That Google Chrome update is horrendous! It's being forced outside of Play Store, but there is a way to disable it.

It's pretty ugly, but here's how I stopped it, while keeping Play Services (Gmail, Maps, etc): Go into Application Manager, scroll over to the "All" tab, and find "Download manager". Once you disable that, there will be NO updates from anywhere.

Now, Play Store won't open all the way, asking you to turn Download manager back on. So when you need to use Play Store, go back into settings, find Chrome, disable it, then clear data on Download manager and also on Play Store. Then, you can update other apps without updating Chrome.

You also will need to use Firefox or Opera to download PDFs and other files online.

Hope this helps,