A method of securing an in-vehicle infotainment system to a portable electronic device comprising: accessing, by at least one processor of the in-vehicle infotainment system associated with a vehicle, an electronic certificate associated with a first party; determining, by the at least one processor, that the first party is authorized to perform a secure pairing of the in-vehicle infotainment system with the portable electronic device based on an evaluation of the electronic certificate; transmitting, by the at least one processor, a location identifier to the portable electronic device based in part on determining that the first party is authorized; and exchanging, by the at least one processor, authentication information with the portable electronic device, wherein the portable electronic device is associated with the at least one processor after exchanging the authentication information and the portable electronic device is securely paired with the single in-vehicle infotainment system while preventing the portable electronic device to be paired with a different in-vehicle infotainment system without engaging in a secure re-pairing procedure; and wherein a single gateway application running on the portable electronic device is established between certain applications running on the portable electronic device and other applications related to communications between the portable electronic device and the in-vehicle infotainment system, the single gateway application is serving as a checkpoint and determining if an application is authorized before relaying communications from that application on to the in-vehicle infotainment system. accessing, by at least one processor of the in-vehicle infotainment system associated with a vehicle, an electronic certificate associated with a first party; determining, by the at least one processor, that the first party is authorized to perform a secure pairing of the in-vehicle infotainment system with the portable electronic device based on an evaluation of the electronic certificate; transmitting, by the at least one processor, a location identifier to the portable electronic device based in part on determining that the first party is authorized; and exchanging, by the at least one processor, authentication information with the portable electronic device, wherein the portable electronic device is associated with the at least one processor after exchanging the authentication information and the portable electronic device is securely paired with the single in-vehicle infotainment system while preventing the portable electronic device to be paired with a different in-vehicle infotainment system without engaging in a secure re-pairing procedure; and wherein a single gateway application running on the portable electronic device is established between certain applications running on the portable electronic device and other applications related to communications between the portable electronic device and the in-vehicle infotainment system, the single gateway application is serving as a checkpoint and determining if an application is authorized before relaying communications from that application on to the in-vehicle infotainment system. <EOS>