diff --git a/briar-tests/src/org/briarproject/data/BdfReaderImplTest.java b/briar-tests/src/org/briarproject/data/BdfReaderImplTest.java
index a0cef6a27e97532a45086bda5dd0888265f08250..a3309ddac02562881778ae6c2b46af6d4075fa8d 100644
--- a/briar-tests/src/org/briarproject/data/BdfReaderImplTest.java
+++ b/briar-tests/src/org/briarproject/data/BdfReaderImplTest.java
@@ -12,7 +12,6 @@ import static org.junit.Assert.assertArrayEquals;
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertEquals;
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertFalse;
 import static org.junit.Assert.assertTrue;
-import static org.junit.Assert.fail;
 
 public class BdfReaderImplTest extends BriarTestCase {
 
@@ -260,14 +259,13 @@ public class BdfReaderImplTest extends BriarTestCase {
 
 	@Test
 	public void testReadUtf8String() throws Exception {
-		String str = "������ \uFDD0\uFDD1\uFDD2\uFDD3\uFDD1 ������";
-		String strHex = StringUtils.toHexString(str.getBytes("UTF-8"));
+		String unicode = "\uFDD0\uFDD1\uFDD2\uFDD3";
+		String hex = StringUtils.toHexString(unicode.getBytes("UTF-8"));
 		// STRING_8 tag, "foo", the empty string, and the test string
-		setContents("41" + "03" + "666F6F" + "41" + "00" +
-				"41" + "35" + strHex);
+		setContents("41" + "03" + "666F6F" +"41" + "00" + "41" + "0C" + hex);
 		assertEquals("foo", r.readString(Integer.MAX_VALUE));
 		assertEquals("", r.readString(Integer.MAX_VALUE));
-		assertEquals(str, r.readString(Integer.MAX_VALUE));
+		assertEquals(unicode, r.readString(Integer.MAX_VALUE));
 		assertTrue(r.eof());
 	}
 
diff --git a/briar-tests/src/org/briarproject/data/BdfWriterImplTest.java b/briar-tests/src/org/briarproject/data/BdfWriterImplTest.java
index 1d2b796461a88a3d2440056abb6eadc161f54de8..8da0f0e2c6e8205570f4e3993a28c049bafa545c 100644
--- a/briar-tests/src/org/briarproject/data/BdfWriterImplTest.java
+++ b/briar-tests/src/org/briarproject/data/BdfWriterImplTest.java
@@ -114,11 +114,11 @@ public class BdfWriterImplTest extends BriarTestCase {
 
 	@Test
 	public void testWriteUtf8String() throws IOException {
-		String str = "������ \uFDD0\uFDD1\uFDD2\uFDD3\uFDD1 ������";
-		String strHex = StringUtils.toHexString(str.getBytes("UTF-8"));
-		w.writeString(str);
-		// STRING_8 tag, length 53, UTF-8 bytes
-		checkContents("41" + "35" + strHex);
+		String unicode = "\uFDD0\uFDD1\uFDD2\uFDD3";
+		String hex = StringUtils.toHexString(unicode.getBytes("UTF-8"));
+		w.writeString(unicode);
+		// STRING_8 tag, length 12, UTF-8 bytes
+		checkContents("41" + "0C" + hex);
 	}
 
 	@Test
diff --git a/briar-tests/src/org/briarproject/data/MetadataEncoderParserImplTest.java b/briar-tests/src/org/briarproject/data/MetadataEncoderParserImplTest.java
index f518e0d6175513e2cc6a1815cbe8c2798261a033..1d87d520cdb0347c6c9c86d3cbe5660e1bfa0e9b 100644
--- a/briar-tests/src/org/briarproject/data/MetadataEncoderParserImplTest.java
+++ b/briar-tests/src/org/briarproject/data/MetadataEncoderParserImplTest.java
@@ -73,10 +73,10 @@ public class MetadataEncoderParserImplTest extends BriarTestCase {
 
 	@Test
 	public void testUtf8String() throws FormatException {
-		d.put("test", "abcdefghilkmnopqrst ������ \uFDD0\uFDD1\uFDD2\uFDD3");
+		d.put("test", "abcdefghilkmnopqrst \uFDD0\uFDD1\uFDD2\uFDD3");
 		Metadata metadata = e.encode(d);
 
-		assertEquals("abcdefghilkmnopqrst ������ \uFDD0\uFDD1\uFDD2\uFDD3",
+		assertEquals("abcdefghilkmnopqrst \uFDD0\uFDD1\uFDD2\uFDD3",
 				p.parse(metadata).getString("test", null));
 	}
 
@@ -124,9 +124,9 @@ public class MetadataEncoderParserImplTest extends BriarTestCase {
 	public void testComplexDictionary() throws FormatException {
 		Map<String, List> m = new HashMap<String, List>();
 		List<String> one = new ArrayList<String>(3);
-		one.add("����");
-		one.add("������");
-		one.add("����");
+		one.add("\uFDD0");
+		one.add("\uFDD1");
+		one.add("\uFDD2");
 		m.put("One", one);
 		List<String> two = new ArrayList<String>(2);
 		two.add("\u0080");
@@ -140,11 +140,11 @@ public class MetadataEncoderParserImplTest extends BriarTestCase {
 
 		Metadata metadata = e.encode(d);
 
-		assertEquals("����", p.parse(metadata).getDictionary("test", null)
+		assertEquals("\uFDD0", p.parse(metadata).getDictionary("test", null)
 				.getList("One", null).get(0));
-		assertEquals("������", p.parse(metadata).getDictionary("test", null)
+		assertEquals("\uFDD1", p.parse(metadata).getDictionary("test", null)
 				.getList("One", null).get(1));
-		assertEquals("����", p.parse(metadata).getDictionary("test", null)
+		assertEquals("\uFDD2", p.parse(metadata).getDictionary("test", null)
 				.getList("One", null).get(2));
 		assertEquals("\u0080", p.parse(metadata).getDictionary("test", null)
 				.getList("Two", null).get(0));
@@ -154,5 +154,4 @@ public class MetadataEncoderParserImplTest extends BriarTestCase {
 		assertEquals(true, p.parse(metadata).getDictionary("another test", null)
 				.getBoolean("should be true", false));
 	}
-
 }