Systems, method sand computer program products for facilitating the automatic deletion of received emails after a user-selectable time period has elapsed are disclosed. In various embodiments, email messages contain a header field referred to as an “Expiration Time” header field that dictates the length of time the email will reside in a designated Inbox prior to its automatic deletion by an email server. The server is able to automatically delete the received email as long as the email is residing in a folder that is synched to the server. A user receiving the email has access to the Expiration Time Header field and can modify its value if desired and allowed by the sender. The user can move the retrieved email to a folder that is not synched to the server, thus preventing the email from being automatically deleted by the server.