FWIW, many of those no-photography policies are either illegal, or unenforcable. Security guards, or even the police, tend to intimidate people unecessarily.

Approximately 3 hours later, I was back at that mall for another errand. I stopped at the helpdesk. The woman at the desk was on the phone. I sent a quick txt while she finished that call. Then I asked her if I could have a copy of the policy stating that photography was not allowed in the mall. She said she didn't have a copy, it would be in the management office, but that it was closed. She suggested she could get the manager to call me. I said I didn't need the manager to contact me. I wanted to know if the policy was available, and it wasn't. All I needed to know. I thanked her and left.

2 hours after that, realising I had forgotten something, I went back. Managed to take two pictures, FTW!!! Anyway, as I was on my way out of the mall, the same guard I had interacted with earlier was next to the help desk and waved me over. He told me he had spoken to his manager who wanted my contact details to follow up. I gave him my name (again) and my phone number. I said that I was going to follow up myself. The guard then told me "You didn't need to talk to her the way you did". I asked what way was that? And he said I'd been rude!

I turned to the woman, and asked her point blank if I'd been rude to her. She hesitated, mumbled something but not a response. I reiterated my perception of our exchange, as stated a couple paragraphs ago.

They then started telling me that because of Privacy reasons I couldn't take photos of people in the mall. I pointed out that I was not actually taking photos of people, but that in any case, it was untrue that such photos couldn't be taken on that basis.

It's worth noting that previous interactions with the mall owners have all been positive and good. This is the first time I've been treated this way.