A direct-detection optical data receiver capable of low-latency SSBI cancellation using one or more FIR filters in the chain of digital signal processing thereof. In an example embodiment, a DSP of the receiver may have first and second serially connected FIR filters whose filter coefficients are updated based on a same feedback signal. An SSBI-cancellation circuit of the DSP is configured to estimate the SSBI by summing a scaled square of the filtered signal generated by the first FIR filter and a scaled square of the filtered signal generated by the second FIR filter. In some embodiments, the SSBI-cancellation circuit may have two or more serially connected stages, each of which incrementally improves the accuracy of the SSBI estimate. In some embodiments, the need for dedicated and/or specialized filter-calibration procedures may beneficially be circumvented.