I don't know why you think it's relevant. All that matters is the privacy law in the local jurisdiction. Some people will be fine with it, others wont. The real question is: what's the harm?
People were clearly concerned about it, because the nature of its services weren't all that clear to the end user. Students protested, it was investigated and found that no PII information to taken, great no further action required.
My point is that the situation was clearly cause for concern because we have a lack of trust in these technologies and those who use them.
Case in point from the article "the embedded cameras inside Cadillac Fairview’s digital information kiosks used facial recognition technology to record over five million images of shoppers at malls without their customers’ knowledge or consent."
By the way, does any 3rd party inspect the software of all those machines with cameras, before they are allowed to be installed? Probably not so it's their word against the suspicions of privacy wise people, until something goes wrong and some kind of investigation starts.