Cloud services and the new "account" thing are not related at all (at least for now). Reporting the program status to the account only means that Avast will report to your account (that you created), if everything's okay locally, ie all shields are running etc..
Otherwise the new cloud services are brand new, and you can still consider that you're running a safe system if you don't use them. Cloud connections only enhance security for now: streaming updates to get the latest virus def in real time, while file rep can generate a sandbox alert if the file you're downloading or launching is suspicious, unknown, etc... right, this said your first line of defense remain the file shield, and the web shield.
