The present disclosure describes, e.g., methods, system and apparatus for steganographically encoding information in image or video data. One claim recites a method including: determining one or more noise characteristics of a device; based at least on the one or more noise characteristics, influencing a steganographic embedding process associated with the device; and using a programmed electronic processor, steganographically embedding plural-bit auxiliary data in host content handled or processed by the device according to the influenced steganographic embedding process. Of course, other claims are provided too.