bob3160: In the original post it clearly says "and (temporarily) disabled updates."
My primary concern is simply that there's no clear reason for it to be doing this at all. There may be potential privacy issues, but I've no reason not to trust Avast, it's more an issue of control and resources (the same reason I'm currently trying out Avast in favour of my previous AV). I get the feeling you guys just don't actually know the answer to my question and for some reason are choosing to change the subject and question me instead of leaving the matter to someone who'll respond appropriately.
Look, Avast offers options for a reason. Everyone uses their computer differently, and some of the default settings were overkill or irrelevant for the way I use my computer, while others by default weren't quite secure enough. Do you have some kind of problem with that (in which case maybe you should go and tell the developers just to remove all the options), or can we now please focus on the original question?