I've been reading some webpages about this (concerning my country) and it seems that a mall, for instance, although is a private building, is not the same as a house, because 1- it's opened to the public and 2- there's no need to identify yourself to access. Therefore, you are supposed to be able to record videos or take photos, unless there's some indication that informs that this is not allowed.

Also, the police, nor anyone except a lawyer, cannot take your camera, delete or force you to delete your recordings.

Anyway, I've never had any problems with this, although I understand that it would be different if I take a reflex camera or a big video camera and start recording people because everybody would start complaining. You could always argue that you are taking photos of biological interest, hehe, but would they believe that?

Related to this, would it be allowed to start a thread about photo/video/ spycams hardware and video edition, to discuss about technical issues, models, programs, etc?