Pat, to answer your question, no. The samples I used were just that -- short, 2-second-long isolated snippets or phrases. Not entire messages.

I'd disagree with your characterization of the whole answering machine phenomenon as simple people unwittingly giving away their precious private information. After all, the thing's got a tape in it. It's not a secret. If you donated your private videotapes to a thrift store, I'd assume you didn't care much about what was on them or who saw them, either.

The fact that people didn't seem to care enough to take out the tapes is what interested me in the first place. It's not every appliance that can tell you the story of how it got abandoned.

As for smashing your own answering machine with a hammer? That's overkill. If it's analog, you can just take out the tape. If it's digital, simply unplug the thing from the wall and take out the backup battery, if it has one.