Am i being paranoid or what?

I would say you're overreacting. If your camera is not turned on it's not weird those people are saying "hey, is his camera off". If your camera was on you probably did it yourself by clicking on the chatbox and giving it permission. Perhaps it needed time to start.

About the youtube. There's only a small chance it's related. There are so many other possibilities why it suddenly started. Like a bug in youtube, it finished buffering and started, perhaps something dropped on your keyboard.

Ask yourself this, why would someone hack your computer during a chat, to not do anything for 8 months (why would that person wait?), and then to start your youtube video?

I don't know, but I haven't heard of the terrifying hackers group "youtube no-pause".

 

It seems likely that they couldn't see you because your camera was indeed turned off. I agree the YouTube thing does not sound related.

IMO a little paranoia is a good thing FWIW.

 

Paranoid or not, there's some ways you can put your mind at ease. These are not crappy, spyware-laden shareware - they're great, well-respected pieces of software for exactly the situation you're in. Both of these are actually premium-based software....meaning you need to pay for them eventually....but they both have trial periods, so you can at least try them out, and scan your computer to make sure you aren't getting spied on or logged:

Little Snitch:
http://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html

...This is a network monitor - it'll basically show you exactly what programs are sending info out via the internet from your computer.


MacScan:
http://macscan.securemac.com/

...a Spyware scanner. Their website looks kinda spammy, which is a shame, because they're actually well-regarded.


However, there's a few tips for you moving forward to prevent problems down the road:

- Be careful before ever clicking "yes" or "allow" if it pops up as an alert on your browser - especially if on an unfamiliar site. You may be granting access to your computer.

- Always research the reputation of any software you download online - if you aren't reading about it on some insanely reputable site like Gizmodo or Lifehacker, then do your own research first. This especially means stuff you find on forums...like this one, and the recommendations I gave you. I told you they're great, but why take my word for it? Just a 5-minute Google search will tell you if there's any red flags.

Hope this helps just a bit in giving you peace of mind. Run those two programs, and you'll be able to know definitively if you actually need to worry anymore!