Unfortunately it's for real

The UK *has* those protections, in theory (the Data Protection Act has 
teeth).

Alas what it also has is an underfunded Information Commissioner and an 
onrushing database mania on the part of the rest of the government (it 
seems they didn't learn from the loss of critical info on every family in 
Britain, including a lot of MPs).

I don't think coupling the gates to cameras is much of a threat, though: 
if the cameras are maintained the way the rest of the Underground is 
maintained they'll all be broken by the end of the week. :)