Uber Inc. has been a poster child for disruption in the tech industry since its rise, but recent controversy over its lack of regulation and privacy policies highlight how it’s moving into largely uncharted territory.

Last week, the controversial cab service was forced to suspend its services in Nevada after a judge issued a preliminary injunction preventing it operating there. The injunction against Uber was issued by a Washoe Country District Court on grounds that its refusal to comply with state laws on carrying passengers could threaten public safety, said Reuters.

Uber argues it’s not a taxi company but a technology company, and so Nevada’s laws on passenger transportation should not affect it. It’s made similar arguments before in European and Asian countries, yet this is the first time a U.S. state has banned its operations.

In a statement, Uber spokesperson Eva Behrend said the ruling could threaten more than 1,000 jobs in Nevada, adding it was very “unfortunate”.

Uber has since called on Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval and Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto to help it “find a permanent home for ridesharing in Nevada”. It’s unclear what will happen next, but presumably Uber’s lawyers will be working to find some way to ‘legalize’ its services. And it can certainly count on lots of public support – an online petition its set up for Nevadians to show their support for Uber has attracted some 18,000 signatures at the time of writing.

Meanwhile, in a separate announcement, Uber says it’s taken disciplinary action against a company executive accused of using its “God View” tool to track a journalist who used the service. The company said on Friday it had disciplined Josh Mohrer, its general manager for New York City, following an internal investigation.

Uber has since come under fire from numerous media organizations over its privacy policies. Last week, BuzzFeed quoted Uber executive Emil Michael saying how the company could spend millions to “dig up dirt on its critics in the media” if it wanted to. Michael later apologized for those remarks but it once again underlines the significant potential for abuse when data is stored in the cloud.

Just like cloud computing in general, the area in which Uber operates remains largely unregulated and potentially wide open to abuse – and that should serve as a warning for all of us to think twice before putting all our eggs in one cloudy basket.

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