Retail "Facial Recognition"? Real or exaggerated?

[ghtix]

Hi - I signed up to ask a question about what a particular store told my son. I won't bore you with all the details, but they were caught shoplifting some snacks in a Dollar General. They were all kicked out after returning the stuff, having ID checked and pics taken, and told never to enter any Dollar General again. No police involved. All fine with me - my kid also facing my punishment. They were also told that their IDs and pics were being sent to every DG store in the state, and that they have a "facial recognition" system whereby if he enters a DG the employees / manager will receive an automatic warning because his face was recognized in this system. I never heard of this. I also have "facial recognition" concerns having to do with general & overall privacy. So the specific question is: Do the Dollar General stores have a "facial recognition" system? Is this a thing that retail is doing nowadays? Or was it just an exaggerated scare tactic? Thanks for any insight.

[des8]

As this is a UK site you may not receive responses with knowledge of DG's systems

In the uK facial recognition is used by law enforcement agencies and some stores
However I understand it is not 100% accurate