diff --git a/src/service-worker.ts b/src/service-worker.ts
index acd0f71..c4c77d2 100644
--- a/src/service-worker.ts
+++ b/src/service-worker.ts
@@ -31,55 +31,51 @@ self.addEventListener('activate', (event) => {
 });
 
 self.addEventListener('fetch', (event) => {
-	// ignore POST requests etc
 	if (event.request.method !== 'GET') return;
 
+	// --- START: MODIFICATION TO PREVENT CACHING PRIVATE ROUTES ---
+	const url = new URL(event.request.url);
+
+	// If the request is for a private route, always fetch from the network.
+	// This ensures that server-side authentication checks are not bypassed by the cache.
+	if (url.pathname.startsWith('/private')) {
+		event.respondWith(fetch(event.request));
+		return;
+	}
+	// --- END: MODIFICATION ---
+
 	async function respond() {
 		const url = new URL(event.request.url);
-		
-		// Skip caching for auth routes
-		if (url.pathname.startsWith('/auth/')) {
-			return fetch(event.request);
-		}
+		const cache = await self.caches.open(CACHE);
 
-		const cache = await caches.open(CACHE);
-
-		// `build`/`files` can always be served from the cache
+		// `build`/`prerendered` pages are cached on install.
+		// If the page exists in the cache, serve it directly.
 		if (ASSETS.includes(url.pathname)) {
-			const response = await cache.match(url.pathname);
-
-			if (response) {
-				return response;
+			const cachedResponse = await cache.match(url.pathname);
+			if (cachedResponse) {
+				return cachedResponse;
 			}
 		}
 
-		// for everything else, try the network first, but
-		// fall back to the cache if we're offline
+		// For everything else, try to get it from the network.
 		try {
 			const response = await fetch(event.request);
 
-			// if we're offline, fetch can return a value that is not a Response
-			// instead of throwing - and we can't pass this non-Response to respondWith
-			if (!(response instanceof Response)) {
-				throw new Error('invalid response from fetch');
-			}
-
-			if (response.status === 200) {
+			// If the request is for a file from the build directory, cache it.
+			if (response.status === 200 && url.pathname.startsWith(`/${build[0]}/`)) {
 				cache.put(event.request, response.clone());
 			}
 
 			return response;
-		} catch (err) {
-			const response = await cache.match(event.request);
-
-			if (response) {
-				return response;
+		} catch (error) {
+			// If the network is unavailable, fall back to the cache.
+			const cachedResponse = await cache.match(event.request);
+			if (cachedResponse) {
+				return cachedResponse;
 			}
-
-			// if there's no cache, then just error out
-			// as there is nothing we can do to respond to this request
-			throw err;
 		}
+
+		return new Response('Not found', { status: 404 });
 	}
 
 	event.respondWith(respond());