Not trusting a company is not a permanent state of mind - it can be changed if the company listens to its users suggestions - that is how you gain trust as a company. I will not blindly trust anyone without them earning my trust.
I do not blindly trust in any company either.
But, or you trust or you don't. Seems you don't trust avast.
The company will listen open minded, not blindly, the user wishes.
How do I guarantee that the company does not have any backdoors?
avast is a security company. There isn't any backdoor.
I can't say anything about your network as I'm not on it
How do I guarantee that some employee of that company will not go on a rampage and sell all data? There are many more other problems with it...
It won't be an antivirus or a firewall that will avoid that...
Exactly, nothing suspicious if the automatic connections are set so - BUT it is suspicious if the automatic connections are set off, you have to agree with this if you are a smart computer user.
Which are these connections? WebShield does not connect, just scan the connections...
There is nothing suspicious with some of avast connections.