Not normally. Just realize that the files are no longer protected by the drupal login or access settings, which means they could be accessed by the public via someone's browser history or by guessing the url to the file. That is, files are not really protected from prying eyes. This would be a problem if they have attachements on nodes that they are trying to protect.
When the file system is set to private. Drupal's php code is run to check access settings prior to serving out files of any kind (whether they be .css or .pdf or .doc files).
Make sense?
________________________________
From: support-bounces@drupal.org [mailto:support-bounces@drupal.org] On Behalf Of Ms. Nancy Wichmann Sent: Thursday, March 15, 2012 3:56 PM To: support drupal Subject: [support] Changing File System
I just discovered that one of the (D6) sites I occasionally work on has been set to use the private file system. I'll admit that I am not terribly clear on the differences, but I have never before used private - only public. Since this prevents CSS compression and the site is rather sluggish, I'd like to change it.
Is there anything special that I have to do when I choose the public file system?
Nancy
Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. -- Dr. Martin L. King, Jr.