Baofeng UV SR newly unlocked frequencies
The short version: A radio-hobbyist video on unlocking Baofeng UV-5R frequencies is a reminder that owning your own communications gear matters in an era of corporate and government surveillance.
Our Take
This one's a bit of a detour from our usual beat of license plate cameras, but the underlying instinct is the same. The channel Digital ID, Mass Surveillance and Digital Currency walks through newly unlocked frequency ranges on the ubiquitous Baofeng UV-5R, a cheap handheld radio that's become a staple for preppers, hobbyists, and anyone who wants a communication channel that doesn't run through a telecom company's servers or a tech platform's app.
We're not radio engineers, and we're not going to pretend this video is about Flock Safety cameras or ALPR networks. It isn't. But the impulse behind it rhymes with everything we cover here: the idea that infrastructure you control, understand, and can modify yourself is worth more than infrastructure that's locked down, black-boxed, and quietly logging you. Flock's cameras and the data-sharing pipelines behind them operate on the opposite principle — opaque defaults, vendor lock-in, and very little public insight into what's being collected or who sees it.
If you're the type of person who wants to know what's listening, watching, or scanning near you, that curiosity shouldn't stop at radio frequencies. Check our camera map to see what ALPR infrastructure has been documented in your area, and if you want to push back on the surveillance creeping into your town, our take-action page has concrete next steps.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of Digital ID, Mass Surveillance and Digital Currency, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.