It can at times be useful to exclude columns from being in the 'show / hide' list (for example if you have hidden information that the end user shouldn't be able to make visible. This can be done by the oColVis.aiExclude initialisation parameter when creating the DataTable. This is simply an array of integers, indicating which columns should be excluded. This example shows the first column being excluded.
$(document).ready( function () {
$('#example').dataTable( {
"sDom": 'C<"clear">lfrtip',
"oColVis": {
"aiExclude": [ 0 ]
}
} );
} );