yes, highlighting what is possible is always needs to be taken into account. But again, what is possible is not the same as what happens in reality. Just because we can't rule something out, does not make it certain either.

> the "speed" dial would be turned up as high as necessary

It's possible, and probable given the situation (i.e. government, terror acts), but are there situations where this wouldn't happen in a different circumstance? Would mall security, or a marketing company operating an advertising product, have the ability, authorization, know-how, or financial incentive to do so if this wasn't a life/death situation?

Not every application of facial recognition technology will be targeted to terror suspects/bombings.