A bank-owned mobile payments provider that trades under the "Beem It" brand is unable to say if it will be required to report a data breach to Australia's privacy regulator.Digital Wallet Pty Ltd, which is owned by Commonwealth Bank, NAB and Westpac, has revealed that it inadvertently included the email addresses of 500 customers in a bulk message it sent to users of its service on Tuesday.While chief executive Mark Wood has apologised to customers for the data breach, the company has not responded to questions from Banking Day on whether it is obliged to notify the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner.Not all privacy breaches are reportable events under new mandatory disclosure laws that took effect in February.If a company decides that a privacy breach is unlikely to cause harm to its affected customers then it might be exempt from having to make an official notification.The "Beem It" business, which traded as "Beem" until a few weeks ago, facilitates instant money transfers between the debit card accounts of subscribers to its service.The data breach affected customers with bank accounts at CBA, Westpac, NAB and possibly ING.The privacy of email accounts belonging to staff employed at the Reserve Bank of Australia was also undermined by the data breach.An RBA spokesman yesterday declined to comment on the matter.Individual banks participating in the "Beem It" business yesterday appeared unwilling to take ownership of the privacy breaches that affected their customers and referred enquiries from Banking Day to the Digital Wallet company."This really is a matter for Beem It," a Westpac spokeswoman said in an SMS response to questions."I've raised it with them [Beem It] so they can get in touch."While the privacy breaches were a point of concern on social media posts yesterday, they appeared to have little effect on Westpac chief executive Brian Hartzer who on Tuesday was spruiking the Beem It payments service on LinkedIn:"Check out this new free app that lets you pay anyone in Australia using your mobile, regardless of what bank or phone you use."It's a collaboration among a number of Australian banks to make payments more convenient.I've been using it for a while and it's great."A diligent reader replied to Hartzer's post, pointing out that the service was not necessarily a "pay anyone" solution:"According to the Product Disclosure Statement 'The Beem It facility offers a fast, simple and convenient way to pay, receive and request money from people or businesses who are also users of the Beem It app'."Have I misunderstood when Brian says 'pay anyone in Australia' or is it really only other Beem users?"