There's probably a legal distinction, but personally I really don't want, say, my grocery store tracking how long I spent in which aisles to add to my advertising profile.
(Yes, I use rewards cards, but I have the option to not enter my phone number and pay cash if I want to exclude a particular purchase from that dataset.)
FYI with a lot of rewards cards you can just get the card and then do nothing but just use the card. Don't install an app and don't add a phone number. I've also been successful using fake phone numbers, even 555 ones.
Not really, it's antisocial behavior either way. This is just splitting hairs anywhere but a courtroom.
Anyway, a mall is a public space in the context of recording without consent. You have no reasonable expectation of privacy. The law needs to be updated to reflect the vastly more invasive technology we have now compared to when these statutes were written to reflect actual social mores.
