diff --git a/src/Components/Server/src/Circuits/ServerComponentDeserializer.cs b/src/Components/Server/src/Circuits/ServerComponentDeserializer.cs
index 039ae1ad8f..a8ff087396 100644
--- a/src/Components/Server/src/Circuits/ServerComponentDeserializer.cs
+++ b/src/Components/Server/src/Circuits/ServerComponentDeserializer.cs
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 
 using System;
 using System.Collections.Generic;
+using System.Text;
 using System.Text.Json;
 using Microsoft.AspNetCore.DataProtection;
 using Microsoft.Extensions.Logging;
@@ -153,7 +154,9 @@ namespace Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components.Server
             string unprotected;
             try
             {
-                unprotected = _dataProtector.Unprotect(record.Descriptor);
+                var payload = Convert.FromBase64String(record.Descriptor);
+                var unprotectedBytes = _dataProtector.Unprotect(payload);
+                unprotected = Encoding.UTF8.GetString(unprotectedBytes);
             }
             catch (Exception e)
             {
diff --git a/src/Mvc/Mvc.ViewFeatures/src/ServerComponentSerializer.cs b/src/Mvc/Mvc.ViewFeatures/src/ServerComponentSerializer.cs
index d5c3a3c270..a854be20fe 100644
--- a/src/Mvc/Mvc.ViewFeatures/src/ServerComponentSerializer.cs
+++ b/src/Mvc/Mvc.ViewFeatures/src/ServerComponentSerializer.cs
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 
 using System;
 using System.Collections.Generic;
+using System.Text;
 using System.Text.Json;
 using Microsoft.AspNetCore.Components;
 using Microsoft.AspNetCore.DataProtection;
@@ -43,7 +44,9 @@ namespace Microsoft.AspNetCore.Mvc.ViewFeatures
                 invocationId.Value);
 
             var serializedServerComponent = JsonSerializer.Serialize(serverComponent, ServerComponentSerializationSettings.JsonSerializationOptions);
-            return (serverComponent.Sequence, _dataProtector.Protect(serializedServerComponent, ServerComponentSerializationSettings.DataExpiration));
+            var serializedServerComponentBytes = JsonSerializer.SerializeToUtf8Bytes(serverComponent, ServerComponentSerializationSettings.JsonSerializationOptions);
+            var protectedBytes = _dataProtector.Protect(serializedServerComponentBytes, ServerComponentSerializationSettings.DataExpiration);
+            return (serverComponent.Sequence, Convert.ToBase64String(protectedBytes));
         }
 
         internal IEnumerable<string> GetPreamble(ServerComponentMarker record)