If you’re a UK user of the image sharing site Imgur, you’ll have noticed you lost access last Wednesday.

The Information Commissioner’s Office has told Imgur’s parent company, MediaLab AI, it intends to fine them after looking at how they handle age checks and children’s personal data. In response, Imgur made the commercial decision to cut off the UK entirely.

For some, that’s not just losing a site, it’s losing years of content, connections and community.

So what’s that got to do with workplace learning?

Plenty.

If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product. And when you’re the product, you’re exposed to commercial decisions you can’t influence. The same is true in learning. When we put our faith in platforms, catalogues or tools without thinking about ownership, portability or control, we hand over more than our data; we hand over our options.

The lesson? Don’t just choose what’s convenient. Choose what you can sustain, protect and take with you when the rules change.