What is "information hiding"

alt. (context software object-oriented English) The technique to hide information so that it is invisible from the outside of an object. (gloss: It is a principle of segregation of design decisions that are most likely to change, so that other parts of the program are protected from extensive modification.) n. (context software object-oriented English) The technique to hide information so that it is invisible from the outside of an object. (gloss: It is a principle of segregation of design decisions that are most likely to change, so that other parts of the program are protected from extensive modification.)

In computer science, information hiding is the principle of segregation of the design decisions in a computer program that are most likely to change, thus protecting other parts of the program from extensive modification if the design decision is changed. The protection involves providing a stable interface which protects the remainder of the program from the implementation (the details that are most likely to change).

Written another way, information hiding is the ability to prevent certain aspects of a class or software component from being accessible to its clients, using either programming language features (like private variables) or an explicit exporting policy.