Rachel Mak, Photography Editor

Current Yale identification cards will cease to work in residential colleges by Sept. 9 as part of the University’s ongoing effort to replace ID scanners.

Yale’s information technology office first announced it would be replacing ID scanners on June 13, citing newer technology as “necessary to better protect” campus. Now, students have until Monday, Sept. 8, to replace any IDs issued before July 2.

According to a statement from Yale’s media office, the upgraded technology includes “modern encryption and authentication features.”

Undergraduates across all residential colleges will be able to pick up new IDs in specific locations across the next week and a half.

The first phase of the upgrade will focus on scanners in residential colleges, with academic, administrative and research facilities to follow, according to the University’s statement. Approximately 1,200 new readers have already been replaced, the statement said.

The previous ID system was piloted in the 1990s and implemented fully in the early 2000s, according to the statement.

However, by the late 2000s, cards based on radio-frequency identification technology — or RFID — were found to be vulnerable to duplication.

In April, Yale Police Department officers arrested a person on Cross Campus after tracking a cloned ID card used to gain access to Berkeley College.

A student who obtained access to most residential college  by cloning his friends’ IDs described the cloning process as relatively straightforward. The student, who spoke to the News on the condition of anonymity because duplicating an ID violates undergraduate rules, said it was possible to tap someone else’s ID to a relatively cheap device and “have access to their swipes.”

Universities such as MIT, Stanford and Duke have issued digital student IDs accessible on phones. Duke switched exclusively to digital cards in 2023, only issuing physical IDs for student voter registration.

Daniel Lai, a sophomore at Duke, said in an interview that the digital IDs were convenient for accessing student dormitories.

“Basically you can just have your card on your phone,” Lai said. “If you go to the newer dorms on Duke’s campus, you can swipe into your dorm room with your card.”

The Wednesday email from Yale’s Information Technology Services office said that holding an iPhone near the new ID scanners may cause Apple Pay to appear.

“Our testing has confirmed that the reader will not access any personal information,” the email said.

According to the University media office, the rollout of new IDs for all students will not affect the price for an individual replacement ID, which is $20 according to a Yale Public Safety website.

Yale’s Central Campus ID Center is located on 57 Lock St.