Inclusion of serial number is a standard part of the EXIF data package and it's one of the ways the computer can identify one camera from another so if you own multiple units of the same model camera your computer can identify them separately. Obviously that's not something that most users would have but it does happen a lot in the business world - large insurance companies and real estate firms are a couple of examples.
There are of course image editing applications that strip out the exif data and once that's done the s/n is lost. Also, if someone has the right type of text editor that could strip out the s/n. This isn't a "Kodak thing", it's quite common in the industry.
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Mike O'Brien
Eastman Kodak Company