Symantec has unveiled a new tool that gathers some basic information about you and the links between your financial information and the Internet, then calculates what the value of your identity would be on the black market. The value it comes up with is sobering at best.

Data compromise and identity theft are both on the rise. Incidents like the Heartland Systems data breach put your personal information at risk even if you just use your credit card to get gas. Exploiting application and network weaknesses, a handful of individuals were able to steal data on over 130 million credit and debit card accounts.

Those are examples of large-scale, industrial-strength data breaches. There are also countless malware and phishing attacks aimed at average consumers designed to collect personal information and account data.

Identity theft is a thriving and lucrative business, so apparently all of these ID's are quite valuable. Not according to the Symantec tool. The calculator asks a number of questions regarding demographics, net worth, and how you interact online, especially with financial information. It then determines what your identity would be worth at auction on the black market. According to the Symantec calculator, I am worth $12.29.

Wow! $12.29? I went back and changed my answers to see what I could come up with. Assuming that I am a 60-year old male with a modest net worth of about $10,000 and do my banking and investing online that black market value skyrockets to...$32.29. No. I didn't miss any commas or decimals. It really says $32.29.

Have you ever had your identity stolen? Scratch that. Let's go with something even simpler and more common. Have you ever lost your wallet? That's fun- not.

You have to call all of your bank and credit card companies to put blocks on account activity and cancel the cards. Then you have to deal with the hassle of not having any bank or credit cards for the next 2 to 3 weeks while you wait for new ones to arrive in the mail. You have to take time out of your day to visit the Secretary of State (or DMV depending on your state) and wait for hours typically to get a replacement driver's license.

My bank proactively replaced my debit card earlier this year- I am assuming as a result of the Heartland data breach- and even that is a huge inconvenience. I had to wait for the new card, then change any automatic payments associated with the canceled card number. Even proactive ID theft response is a headache.

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