]Microsoft, Google your ISP, etc, etc. All collect data and use it in many different ways. Making money is one of the ways your data is used.
There may not be any gathering of information via Defender but, it's collected in other places. By default, the OS is set to share as much of your info as possible.
The average user doesn't go into those settings to make changes which is what all large and small companies depend on.
Here in the US, if you've ever been on the internet for any amount of time, you no longer have any privacy.
If you delete your information from one source, you can be assured that this information has already been gathered in many other places.
Security is alive and well. Privacy is a totally different subject matter.
We now at least have the assurance from Ondrej that collection of information from it's product from now on, will only happen if you agree to that collection.
A message from Avast CEO Ondrej Vlcek
https://blog.avast.com/a-message-from-ceo-ondrej-vlcek
Avast will no longer provide data to Jumpshot
https://press.avast.com/avast-to-commence-wind-down-of-subsidiary-jumpshot
Let's look at what the CEO told in the form of an example.
Imagine I took your car without informing you and sold it to some car retailer. You'd be furious right, like right now the users of Avast are with Avast? Later, the news breaks out that I have done similar activity with more than a million people. To calm down the situation, I then tell you that I will never ever deal with that car retailer. That doesn't bring you or those million people's cars back to them. That's what has happened right now. Our data is already gone, no matter what Avast as a company does right now. Noob people, if you believe I am one of those, would always go to review sites to get a better security solution. Considering this debacle and those sites ' decision to not let Avast be on their recommendation list for their privacy scandal, I wouldn't even want an Avast product on my PC. I care about a company collecting stuffs to improve their product, not to shell out cash of their user's day-to-day activities.
I was quite happy last week when a vulnerability of malwares using EFS was already mitigated by Avast in September last year. I felt pride that my preferred Security Solution had already patched up way before other solutions. Now, after the news broke out, I wouldn't even keep this 'data collecting Champ' in my PC. Because I, as the trust is broken, wouldn't be sure no matter how many times Avast tells me that those check boxes in Privacy section even work for sure now.
I was a frequent lurker here and was quite interested and happy in your answers to all those questions that have been asked related to Anti-Virus related issues. But you still believe that Avast did nothing wrong. So, keep enjoying it.
Also, have a look here regarding why Avast shouldn't have done that.
https://forum.avast.com/index.php?topic=231837.msg1533802#msg1533802