What's the best way to activate a Tracfone without leaving any traces? Obviously, I won't activate from my home phone or home computer. Do I have to go to an Internet cafe, or find a pay phone? Or can I activate directly from the Tracfone itself? (If that's possible, then Tracfone has done a great job of hiding the function.)

By the way, I did search "Tracfone" and "hobby phone" for previous posts on this topic, but there are literally thousands of comments. Of the dozen or so I looked it, none answered this question with any amount of detail. A bunch of them said you should "activate without registering," but what I need to know is, HOW do I do that?

Ideally, I'd like to do it directly from the phone without using another phone or computer.

I think you can do that from any phone. When adding minutes you can do that directly from the phone.
The link may also help you out. Remember when it comes to anything related to the hobby, google is always your friend.

The center menu button has options to add minutes directly, I know.

Clearing your cookies and cache, will only take the info off of your computer. The other end of this transaction (the tracphone side) will have your ip, so it can still be traced back to you. If you worry about such things, use a public computer, ie library, (Definitely don't do it from a work computer!) or a payphone if you can do it from a phone, or the tracphone handset if it's possible.

Personally, I don't use a hobby phone. I just use my  personal cell phone for everything but, I am single and self employed, so no worries about SO or job issues. The people that do worry about these things, and clearing all their tracks, usually want to clear "all" of their tracks. Clearing cookies etc, won't do it in this case. Peace

for the advice. I couldn't figure out how to activate my Tracfone directly from the device, so I would up using a pay phone. (They are difficult to find these days!) That worked just fine. I was able to activate the phone without giving any personally identifiable information.

You're not being paranoid if everyone really is out to get you!