To access my voicemail, you have to enter my pin. If I have not set a pin, there's still a default one. The way around this is to spoof my number (on a phone that uses pinless voicemail access) and pretend to be me. In no case is my voicemail public, either in practice or in intention.
I'm not sure how you think an answering machine is different from voicemail. I can access my answering machine from any phone in the universe, too, or at least I could if this was still 1995. Voicemail is just an answering machine than handles a lot of telephone lines.
I'm not sure how you think an answering machine is different from voicemail. I can access my answering machine from any phone in the universe, too, or at least I could if this was still 1995. Voicemail is just an answering machine than handles a lot of telephone lines.