diff --git a/Lib/fontTools/misc/textTools.py b/Lib/fontTools/misc/textTools.py
index 4d0f05af8..7465840d9 100644
--- a/Lib/fontTools/misc/textTools.py
+++ b/Lib/fontTools/misc/textTools.py
@@ -3,13 +3,11 @@
 
 from __future__ import print_function, division
 from fontTools.misc.py23 import *
+import ast
 import string
 
 
-def safeEval(data, eval=eval):
-	"""A (kindof) safe replacement for eval."""
-	return eval(data, {"__builtins__":{}})
-
+safeEval = ast.literal_eval
 
 def readHex(content):
 	"""Convert a list of hex strings to binary data."""