Any oppinions regarding AVG? I replaced Avast with that one, mainly because of the bloatware Avast had (even if you can disable it, it was annoying)
I would stay away from it, considering that Avast and AVG are made by the same company, Avast is a better choice, but I guess they will merge eventually.
You miss the point. They ALL are companies and understandably want to earn as much money as possible. There software per definition has access to EVERYTHING in your computer. What is to prevent them from using this? If a software is free. YOU are the price. Much more interesting is the question: Why use any of them?
I think, If it's for Windows 10, you have windows defender built in, it's enough for daily proteciton, though you may add all your daily use software in the exclude list of windows defender. or you're using any older version of windows, Microsoft Essential is a option for sure, you can also use the free comodo suite or just the free comodo firewall to protect your system. well, Kaspersky have also have their free version now, you may also want to try it.
Honestly, I am trying to understand your motivation to refuse all that info. I can understand motivation and acts of US government in Kaspersky case and of course, Kaspersky will refuse all. Yes, many governments are using power of internet and we have already seen it, for example, in Ukraine.