[SirChainsaw]

Conceptually you're pretty much there, sir. Gmail is mostly just an interface to googles mail servers.

Gmail's UI doesn't do the actual deleting of email, it just instructs the email server to delete it.

However, I have no idea how the email servers behind that are actually configured. I wouldn't be surprised if emails are actually just hidden or archived but they'll "look" like they've been deleted.

Hope this helps.

[taurusnoises]

Thanks, it does. I'm trying to conceptually understand how some of this works (completely devoid of any CS background other than basic code knowledge, but even that... Yikes). So this helps.