If anything, I am interested in the bias this data will have since I suspect many advanced users instinctively opt out of data collection policies. I opt out of anything that I can, and I would opt out of more if the options were readily available. Since advanced users are more likely—in my estimation—to have higher-specification hardware, I suspect the data is slightly biased toward the low-end.
(I more or less instinctively opt out of data collection and have never enabled it in Firefox.)
Still, the self selection bias is a curiosity.
The screen shot from your preferences section is odd - all the boxes are there on Windows and macOS for me. Perhaps you can file a bug on bugzilla.mozilla.org
This is the default collection that is on but can be opted out of: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/privacy/firefox/#health-report
This is what users can opt into: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/privacy/firefox/#telemetry
Are you using a FF build from mozilla or from debian? Debian modifies theirs.
Ouch. I'm pretty sure that here in Germany they could be sued for that. Regarding privacy law there we have a general consensus that out-out is too weak in almost all cases. You need opt-in, or in some cases double opt-in.
Also, I wonder why Mozilla is playing the game that way. Aren't they afraid that actions like this may damage their reputation?
On the other hand, this may simply be the continuation of their "pragmatic" policy that led them into feeding Google Analytics with their sites and making Google the default search engine (instead of privacy-friendly alternatives).
There's also a Medium post that went out with the Hardware Report that details more about the process behind it. https://medium.com/mozilla-tech/https-medium-com-mozilla-tec...
Firefox would also definitely not be the first piece of software to run in Germany that has opt-out instead of opt-in. Most software does it that way and usually much sneakier than Firefox.
Under "how is the report created" [1] it says that "Firefox automatically collects information [...] unless users disable this collection". This seems to be in conflict with Mozilla Telemetry FAQ [2] that says that data collection is disabled by default for release builds.
In fact, on Firefox 50.1.0 on Debian I no longer see the "Share additional data" setting mentioned in [3] - see screenshot in [4]. Does this mean that Telemetry is now enabled by default and can't be disabled?
[1] https://metrics.mozilla.com/firefox-hardware-report/
[2] https://wiki.mozilla.org/Telemetry/FAQ#Is_Telemetry_enabled_...
[3] https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/share-telemetry-data-mo...
[4] https://www.tablix.org/~avian/stuff/firefox_data_choices.png