One thing these days that really annoys me are cold callers, be it at my front door or on the telephone. To avoid this I have taken every preventative measure that I can. My home line is ex directory and yet I still get 2 or 3 calls a week asking if I've had an accident that wasn't my fault or whether I may have been sold unnecessary insurance on a loan etc.
I hate it when you answer the phone and they ask you to verify your name, address and date of birth before you even know who you are. My reply is usually along the lines of "who the hell are you and how about you give me all your personal details before we go any further". I then ask them how they got my ex directory number and tell them to never ring it again before I put the phone down on them.
I have 2 notices on my front door along the lines of no sales people, no junk mail or leaflets, no religious sects and please respect our privacy. This has stopped 9 out of 10 of these people but I still get the odd one who either can't read on chooses to ignore them for some reason. This is irritating because not only do I have no inclination to speak to these people but it also sets my 2 dogs off who go into guard dog mode and make a really big noise with their barking etc.
So do these cold callers also drive you mad and do you see it as a complete invasion of your privacy?

I don't own a telephone so I'm never bothered by unwanted telephone callers. I do get an occasional salesperson or religious evangelist at my door, though. I have to admit I feel kind of compromised, privacy-wise, when that happens. Salespeople harassing me bothers me less than evangelists harassing me. I tell both of them I'm not interested and close the door before they can bother me further.

Not overly to be honest.

I actually feel people should sympathize with them more, after all at best their job is monotonous at worst they are berated into depression.

I worked at an outbound call center for a day and there was a salient dour undertone to the general atmosphere, must be quite bleak.

Well, yes, they do. So:

1) I never answer the phone. I have an answering machine; when someone calls I can hear what they say when the machine answers and decide if I can pick it up or not. "Cold callers" do not speak when a machine answers.

2) I live in a building; only people who know the access code can enter it.

I used to keep getting these calls from Missouri that when every time I picked up the phone, it would just be silence and it would just hang up. I kept ignoring it every time it called for a time, but one day I had enough and answered the call again and just yelled at them to stop calling me. I think they called one time after that, but since then, they stopped calling.

I wouldn't say that's cold calling, but just down right creepy. And eventually, annoying.

Oops, thought this was cat calling

Living in an apartment at the back of the house I'm lucky and have never had a soul show up trying to sell me anything in the 40 months I've been here.

My phone is set up to not accept 'private/blocked' numbers, (They get a message stating as much.) and if I don't recognize a number, I let the machine take it. If it's someone I want to talk to, I'll pick up the receiver.

But over all it's very rare I don't know the number calling me and who's on the other end.

Luckily, I've had very few telemarketer/stranger calls in my life (or any calls at all as my family/friends know I prefer texts). And the few times I do get them, I usually miss them anyway as I barely bring my phone with me. It's usually just on my computer desk all day, and I pretty much just bring it with me if I want to use it as a portable music player or if I'm going out of town.

Same, which is rather nice. In my old apartment building there was no such thing, and Jehovah's Witnesses would ring on my door several times a month.

The only cold callers I've gotten at my door were Jehovah's Witness, who would come knocking ever week or two. I started answering in my underwear.... They dont knock anymore.

I used to have calls all the time, but I switched my home phone service to Verizon and I haven't had one in a few months..... It's too quiet sometimes.

Only salesperson harass my phone. One time a pair of swedish Jehovah's witnesses knocked on my door (here in Finland) and started rambling. Fortunately my native language is swedish and I was able to have a nice debate on life with them.

That happened all the time when I lived in the projects. One time, I started preaching the word of TALOS THE MIGHTY to some of em and they ended up just staring at me. It was priceless.

The only callers I get nowadays are wrong numbers. When I used to get cold calls I'd just hang up after asking them a question.