Techniques for in-band modification of event notification preferences for server events are provided. One method comprises obtaining an event notification; providing the event notification to a target device based on rule-based preferences of a user associated with the target device; obtaining a reply to the event notification from the target device, wherein the reply comprises event preferences of the user; and updating the rule-based preferences of the user based on the event preferences of the user. The updating of the rule-based preferences of the user may comprise creating, modifying and/or canceling at least one event preference rule of the user. A plurality of the event preference rules matching the event notification may be resolved in an order determined by one or more event preference rule resolution criteria.