between "professional" and "personal." I write about politics and computers, and a bunch of my friends are involved in politics and another bunch are involved in computers, so I end up with a lot of interesting ideas and contacts by surfing Twitter and Facebook every day. 

It's one thing to bring one's own device and use the corporate network to do one's "personal" stuff, but what if one brings a device that has its own data plan? I think that's going to be more of a problem going forward, trying to secure that -- and that's the question I hae about the whole General Petraeus incident, how much that was a factor.

I dont have that much of faith in policies especially the ones which have been implemented via online since those policies do cover every aspect on paper but nothing when it comes for practical issues.

The company I work for definitely is strict on this policy.  During the first week of your new hire period and periodically afterwards, you login to the online learning management system and read the policy and acknowledge it.  So whether you actually read it or not, once you check the acknowledge button, it is tracked in your curriculum history.  So if there is ever a question, the company can say that you were aware of the policy.  Also, several of the social websites that people would typically go out to is blocked and of course all traffic is being monitored.

You would think that people would do the right thing automatically.  They would not use company assets or company time to do personal work, especially if that "work" skirts legality.  You might think that, but you would be wrong.  People do some pretty thoughtless and even illegal things on your network every day, and if you haven't told them it's stupid and wrong, well, they can honestly say they didn't know any better.  Ridiculous, but true.  That signed policy is your Get Out Of Jail Free card on the off chance that an employee does something that would attract the attention of, say, the Justice Department, or creates an unpleasant work environment, or any of a dozen other annoyances and vexations to the spirit.  Just because they shouldn't doesn't mean they won't, so protect yourselves, while you still can.  It puts me in mind of a very old Doonesbury cartoon, in which the head of the law school is standing at a podium explaining that they had to put together an ethics curriculum because some lawyers just weren't "getting it."  Putting his face in his hands, he intones, "Right and Wrong 101 is one such shot in the dark."  Don't be that guy.  Save yourselves, before it's too late.