private function jsonDecode($serialized_data)
    {
        $data = json_decode($serialized_data, true);

        if (json_last_error()) {
            $error_message = 'Failed to parse JSON';

            if (function_exists('json_last_error_msg')) {
                $error_message .= '. Reason: ' . json_last_error_msg();
            }

            throw new RuntimeException($error_message);
        }

        return $data;
    }