In the KMart case, it would not have been interpreted differently if people were doing the facial recognition rather than a computer. The issue was indiscriminate use on everyone who walked in, without permission or proper notification. Which is only cost effective if automated, and a technology of convenience I guess.

But is a non-indiscriminate, privacy friendly solution possible? The problem is people walking in with a valid receipt for a purchased item, grabbing a matching item off the shelf, and wandering over to the returns counter and requesting their money back. The usual solution most shops use is locating the returns counter past the security controls (checkout counter). But more and more of these types of stores are putting their service counters in the middle of the store for some reason.