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Why do they need IMEI for? and mac addresses of close networks (besides location).

When the user gives consent for PII like IMEI, location, networks mac addresses?

I wonder if both companies might be breaching the Children's Online Privacy Protection Rule ("COPPA").

You'd have to ask Apple, but I'd imagine they would say they use it to improve location services. Access point / MAC address data is really useful in aggregate as a way of augmenting GPS, especially indoors. And of course it's also a great way of seeing who associates with each other, but that's at least somewhat mitigated by most devices broadcasting random MAC addresses until they actually join a network.

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