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Show HN: WhatsApp MCP Server

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Re: Show HN: WhatsApp MCP Server

#91

Post by jeroenhd »

darkwater wrote: post #60
gus_massa wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Where am I wrong? What am I not seeing? The killer application are the group chats. Normies can't make an email group, or remember to reply to all, or even make a Yahoo! Group [dead] or Google Group [dead?]. It's very easy to setup a group in WhatsApp and keep the member list updated. For bonus points, it's very difficult to Ctr-C the info in WhatsApp, it's easier to press the arrow and forward the message to anoth…

> PS: Also, a few eons ago in many countries SMS had a cost, and WhatsApp was free, it was so another good point to use it. That was the starting point for sure in many European countries.

The worst part is that it wasn't even free, you were still paying for the data unless you were on wifi. Standard text messaging was so expensive (and so terrible) that data rates obliterated standard phone services in both quality and price.

I remember paying 23 cents per SMS. Still, carriers were somehow surprised when people moved away from them.

Funnily enough, now that RCS is slowly making its way back, people seem to forget that free unlimited messages are hardly guaranteed with these services. Can't wait for the backlash when the first iPhone users start getting charged for RCS messages with their Android contacts.

Re: Show HN: WhatsApp MCP Server

#93

Post by cirego »

tuananh wrote: post #66
cirego wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I believe echoangle’s concern is about the security and privacy of the LLM using the data, not the MCP server itself.

ah right. my bad.

Sorry, I should have added my second thought. Your original comment about isolating MCP servers is also good!

These are tools where the AI may tell you it’s doing one thing and then accidentally do another (I had an LLM tell me it would make a directory using mkdir but then called the shell command kdir (thankfully didn’t exist)). Sandboxing MCP servers is also important!

Re: Show HN: WhatsApp MCP Server

#95

Post by jeroenhd »

d3m0t3p wrote: post #23
gabll wrote: post #17

I don’t know if whatsmeow was intended for this use case: imagine a LLM performing multiple calls in a short period of time, could you risk to have your whatsapp account blocked by Meta?

Apparently this is the case: https://github.com/tulir/whatsmeow/discussions/199

Good to know WhatsApp is at least somewhat proactive against scammers.

Re: Show HN: WhatsApp MCP Server

#97

Post by jascha_eng »

deutschepost wrote: post #76

It is crazy how out of touch people on this platform can be. I live in Europe but have been to Asia and South America. People use WhatsApp everywhere. Just because you live in North America where everyone uses SMS/iMessage/whatever doesn't mean everyone does. I can remember my parents scolding me because they got charged for me receiving some SMS. WhatsApp was a gamechanger. You could send messages or pictures withou…

I live in europe and my social life is spread out between telegram, whatsapp, signal, discord. For professional life you could even include linkedin and slack. A single MCP server wont ever cut it for me and adding 6 for 6 different tools will confuse any llm and make it send the message to the wrong person. Completely ignoring the fact that I would not use this anyways... like people want to talk to ME not an LLM. Whatsapp has a chat with Llama now anyways if that's who they want to talk to.

Re: Show HN: WhatsApp MCP Server

#98

Post by jeroenhd »

echoangle wrote: post #80
jeroenhd wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That case describes publishing this to the public internet. I don't believe the same would apply when using a tool like this. My family members all back up our conversations to Google Drive, I doubt WhatsApp would provide that feature if it were illegal.

Well it would depend on which LLM you use and what their terms are. But if they use your input as training data, that would probably be enough.

We'll have to see. Tools like these are already common on platforms like LinkedIn, so if it's legally questionable I expect the courts to cover it soon enough.

My German isn't good enough to read the original text about this case, but if the sentiment behind https://natlawreview.com/article/data-mining-ai-systems-trai... is correct, I wouldn't be surprised if this would also fall under some kind of legal exception.

The biggest problem, of course, is that regardless of legality, this software will probably be used (and probably already is being used) because it's almost impossible to prove or disprove its use as a remote party.

Re: Show HN: WhatsApp MCP Server

#99

Post by echoangle »

jeroenhd wrote: post #98
echoangle wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well it would depend on which LLM you use and what their terms are. But if they use your input as training data, that would probably be enough.

We'll have to see. Tools like these are already common on platforms like LinkedIn, so if it's legally questionable I expect the courts to cover it soon enough. My German isn't good enough to read the original text about this case, but if the sentiment behind https://natlawreview.com/article/data-mining-ai-systems-trai... is correct, I wouldn't be surprised if this would also fall under some kind of legal exception. T…

> My German isn't good enough to read the original text about this case, but if the sentiment behind https://natlawreview.com/article/data-mining-ai-systems-trai... is correct, I wouldn't be surprised if this would also fall under some kind of legal exception.

That's something completely different. One is about copyright of stuff that was shared publically, while the other is about sharing private communications, violating their personal rights (not copyright).

But of course, we'll have to see, I'm not a lawyer either.

Re: Show HN: WhatsApp MCP Server

#100

Post by dvrp »

echoangle wrote: post #49

As others have already said, think about what you're doing when you use this. If you connect a not-selhosted LLM to this, you're effectively uploading chat message with other people to a third-party server. The people you chat with have an expectation of privacy so this would probably be illegal in many jurisdictions.

Your information is gone the moment you utter words. I can also copy and paste the messages people send me.
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