What is the term used for intentionally embedding secret data into a picture or some form of media?

The term that describes the act of intentionally embedding secret data into a picture or some form of media is data hiding. This technique is commonly used in steganography, where information is concealed within other non-secret data, such as images, audio, or video files, to avoid detection. Data hiding allows users to communicate securely by embedding messages within seemingly innocuous files, ensuring confidentiality and protection against unauthorized access.

In contrast, data encoding refers to converting data into a format that is readable by different systems or software, while data concealment is a broader term that can imply various methods of making data less visible but doesn’t specifically refer to embedding in media. Data encryption involves transforming data into a scrambled format to ensure it is unreadable without the appropriate decryption key, rather than embedding it in another file type.