Hadn't heard about the "software reporter tool" thing before - I don't know what data exactly it's sending to Google, but it sounds concerning.

The broader point is that if you use a piece of software made by an advertising company to access the web, that company will eventually abuse its power - if making Chrome is attractive to Google, then using Chrome cannot be good for you in the long term.

If you're looking for an alternative that is just a carbon copy of Chrome but without surveillance, use Ungoogled Chromium. Otherwise, you might give Firefox a try.

For Ungoogled Chromium, you need to do some maneuvering before you can install extensions.

For Firefox, there are some concerns about the priorities of Mozilla leadership.

There are other options, but the ones I've tried don't work for certain things, or only after messing with the settings a bunch.