diff --git a/changelog.d/3732.bugfix b/changelog.d/3732.bugfix
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..638b6334b
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog.d/3732.bugfix
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Fix bug introduced in v0.33.3rc1 which made the ToS give a 500 error
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/synapse/rest/consent/consent_resource.py b/synapse/rest/consent/consent_resource.py
index 147ff7d79..7362e1858 100644
--- a/synapse/rest/consent/consent_resource.py
+++ b/synapse/rest/consent/consent_resource.py
@@ -140,7 +140,7 @@ class ConsentResource(Resource):
         version = parse_string(request, "v",
                                default=self._default_consent_version)
         username = parse_string(request, "u", required=True)
-        userhmac = parse_string(request, "h", required=True)
+        userhmac = parse_string(request, "h", required=True, encoding=None)
 
         self._check_hash(username, userhmac)
 
@@ -175,7 +175,7 @@ class ConsentResource(Resource):
         """
         version = parse_string(request, "v", required=True)
         username = parse_string(request, "u", required=True)
-        userhmac = parse_string(request, "h", required=True)
+        userhmac = parse_string(request, "h", required=True, encoding=None)
 
         self._check_hash(username, userhmac)
 
@@ -210,9 +210,18 @@ class ConsentResource(Resource):
         finish_request(request)
 
     def _check_hash(self, userid, userhmac):
+        """
+        Args:
+            userid (unicode):
+            userhmac (bytes):
+
+        Raises:
+              SynapseError if the hash doesn't match
+
+        """
         want_mac = hmac.new(
             key=self._hmac_secret,
-            msg=userid,
+            msg=userid.encode('utf-8'),
             digestmod=sha256,
         ).hexdigest()