All modern information systems enable users to create documents easily and to disseminate those documents widely. These properties of rapid, inexpensive creation and dissemination usually have good consequences. For example, during the recovery from Hurricane Katrina in 2005, emergency personnel used geographic information systems to tailor maps and spatial analyses to specific requests. GIS dramatically decreased the time necessary to create ad hoc maps, and they enabled real-time changes to maps that would not have been possible on paper maps. (Graeff and Loui 2008)

While GIS can promote the good by providing accurate data quickly, GIS can also cause harm through misrepresentations and biases. Biases are an inherent in all information systems and come about in one of three ways:

preexisting bias
a personal or societal bias that occurs before data are added to a computer system; this can be intentional or unintentional, for example whether or not to include a particular sensitive location.
technical bias
results from limitations on hardware, software, or algorithms; for example, screen size may limit the number of choices that a user sees, thus creating a bias against those options that are hidden or obscured.
emergent bias
arises after an information system is in use; for example, decisions that are made based on old information have a bias when that information changes and the user does not have access to the latest information or the information is not updated in a timely manner.

References

Graeff, Christine, and Michael C. Loui. 2008. “Ethical Implications of Technical Limitations in Geographic Information Systems.” IEEE Technology and Society Magazine 27: 27–36. https://doi.org/10.1109/MTS.2008.930566.