GoKawiilRental car infotainment systems can retain synced phone data indefinitely
Pairing a phone with a rental car's entertainment system via Bluetooth can prompt a sync of contacts and other data, which may be stored on the vehicle's infotainment system indefinitely unless manually deleted. Using a USB cable with Apple CarPlay or Android Auto instead offers encrypted connections that don't expose this data. Rental companies like Avis state in their policies that customers are responsible for removing their own data and that the company isn't liable for information left behind.