diff --git a/bin/github-backup b/bin/github-backup
index 186e2a0..ec3f738 100755
--- a/bin/github-backup
+++ b/bin/github-backup
@@ -271,7 +271,7 @@ def get_auth(args, encode=True):
     if encode == False:
         return auth
 
-    return base64.b64encode(auth)
+    return base64.b64encode(auth.encode('ascii'))
 
 
 def get_github_api_host(args):
@@ -326,7 +326,7 @@ def retrieve_data(args, template, query_args=None, single_request=False):
             errors.append(template.format(status_code, r.reason))
             log_error(errors)
 
-        response = json.loads(r.read())
+        response = json.loads(r.read().decode('utf-8'))
         if len(errors) == 0:
             if type(response) == list:
                 data.extend(response)
@@ -382,7 +382,7 @@ def _construct_request(per_page, page, query_args, template, auth):
 
     request = Request(template + '?' + querystring)
     if auth is not None:
-        request.add_header('Authorization', 'Basic ' + auth)
+        request.add_header('Authorization', 'Basic '.encode('ascii') + auth)
     return request