This paper presents a robust lossless data hiding scheme. The original cover image can be recovered without any distortion after data extraction if the stego-image remains intact

and conversely

the hidden data can still be extracted correctly if the stego-image goes through JPEG compression to some extent. A cover image is divided into a number of non-overlapping blocks

and the arithmetic difference of each block is calculated. By shifting the arithmetic difference value

we can embed bits into the blocks. The shift quantity and shifting rule are fixed for all blocks

and reversibility is achieved. Furthermore

because the bit-0- and bit-1-zones are separated and the particularity of the arithmetic differences

minor changes applied to the stego-image generated by non-malicious attacks such as JPEG compression will not cause the bit-0- and bit-1-zones to overlap

and robustness is achieved. The new embedding mechanism can enhance embedding capacity and the addition of a threshold can make the algorithm more robust. Experimental results showed that

compared with previous schemes

the performance of the proposed scheme is significantly improved.