Comment 6 for bug 1711420

To let you known: this is maintained (see changelog):

popularity-contest (1.65ubuntu1) bionic; urgency=low

  * Merge from Debian unstable. Remaining changes:
    - Set debconf question priority from "high" to "medium"
    - Remove mail-transport-agent recommends
    - Branding changes in the description and homepage
    - Upload uncompressed reports
    - Set submiturls to popcon.ubuntu.com
    - Set email addresses to point to ubuntu.com
    - Don't encrypt reports the ubuntu server doesn't handle that
    - Really upload uncompressed reports (LP 1545515) and check for
      server response of "Thanks" (LP 1545517).

 -- Julian Andres Klode <email address hidden> Wed, 17 Jan 2018 11:19:13 +0100

popularity-contest (1.65) unstable; urgency=low

  * Please note when reading stats that Stretch was released with 1.64.
  * popanal.py, gensections.pl, popcon.pl:
    - Read Packages.xz instead of Packages.gz.
  * debian/cron.daily:
    - Make sure /var/log/popularity-contest stay in clear text,
      otherwise tools like popcon-largest-unused breaks.
      Closes: #850568. Thanks Celelibi.
    - "encryption" was misspelt. Thanks Brian Murray. Closes: #816032
  * debian/postinst:
    - generate_id: use /proc/sys/kernel/random/uuid when available.
      do not use md5sum. Thanks Sacrificial. Closes: #854712
  * debian/control:
    - Updated Standards-Version from 3.9.6 to 3.9.8. No change needed.
    - Move to debhelper v9
  * Fix for debconf Russian translation by Aлeкceй Шилин. Closes: #863017

 -- Bill Allombert <email address hidden> Sat, 17 Jun 2017 13:30:03 +0200

And the manpage is clear enough:
http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/artful/man8/popularity-contest.8.html

That said, the 'opt-in' removal you are pointing, is the normal usual app life evolution that user have to understand.

There is no bug here, only your old routine you can discuss with devs on askubuntu if you still need.