Access checking produces PHP warnings when file downloads are set to private

The code that tries to access test.txt to check that the backups are not visible doesn't seem to allow for the private file download method: I get 404 errors in my watchdog logs stating that the path "home/myuser/drupal/files" is nonexistant (this is outside the httpd published directory).

Is it necessary to check at all if the file download method is private?